Simply Chaos
by Simply Rexene
Summary: Finding that you have a twin brother at 17 years old certainly makes for an interesting junior year. Add in some undeniably insane friends, and you have a mix that is Simply Chaos. (Revamp of Baby Doll: M for Mature Themes, I claim no rights to KH.)
1. Begin Again

**Chapter One**

_Begin Again_

"Wake up… wake up… wake up… wake up…" the faint whispering shattered through Sora Strife's dreams. As his eyes fluttered open, he took a swing at the shadowy figure standing over him. "Ow, Sora, what the hell?!"

Sora sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he looked up at his father, "Why were you standing over me like a total creep trying to wake me up?"

"I dunno," his dad said, shrugging his broad shoulders. "It's your first day of school and I didn't want you to be late."

The brunette 17 year old rolled his eyes and scowled, "I'm not an idiot, Dad… my alarm was set to go off any minute now."

As if on cue, his phone started to play a bouncy little pop tune, vibrating itself nearly off of his bedside table. He fumbled to slide it off, cringing at the sudden volume.

Cloud backed out of his son's room with his hands up, giving him a sheepish smile, "Sorry, bud… Uh… I'll make breakfast! Your favorite."

"Wildberry PopTart and orange juice?" Sora asked, narrowing his eyes at his father suspiciously.

"Sure thing… just don't murder me," he joked, heading downstairs to the kitchen. "Bitch!" Sora could hear him yell as he tripped over one of the many unpacked boxes that still riddled the house from their move.

Sora just shook his head and chuckled, "Maybe you should put some of that crap away!"

"Maybe you should take a shower, you stink!" Cloud yelled back, picking up the stuff he'd knocked over.

Smelling himself, Sora quickly realized that his dad was right. He lifted himself out of bed, stretching a little before making his way over to his bathroom. Catching sight of himself in the mirror, he cringed. His dark brown locks of hair were a tangled mess, and he had a weird scruffy shadow growing on his face. He hated how he looked with facial hair… but he almost hated shaving even more.

While he was in the shower, Sora had a moment to truly distress about starting school. It was already a month into the school year, and he had never even gone to a real school before. Sora grew up on Destiny Island with his father, a nearly famous marine biologist. They had been the only residents that lived on the island year round, forcing Sora to be homeschooled.

That being said, it made it very difficult for Sora to socialize as well. Kids from the Mainland would come to the island, but they stayed on the main beach. Cloud and Sora's home was on the other side of the island with a private beach. As far back as Sora could remember, only one girl ever wandered onto their property. He would never be able to forget that girl… her eyes alone were as blue as the ocean, and her beautiful pink-red hair reflected the sun in the most gorgeous way. He'd never caught her name, or even said a word to her. Their eyes only locked for a brief moment before she realized that she was trespassing and ran off. But when his eyes met hers, his heart nearly stopped and his knees grew weak.

Sora had no idea what to expect at high school, but he figured that his junior year would likely be one to remember. He wondered if he might see the redhead at school… she was definitely a Mainland girl.

Stepping out of the shower, he immediately felt ten times better. Remembering that this girl might be at school made him more excited than scared to get there. He dried his hair and styled it in his usual spikey mess, then headed back to his bedroom to get dressed.

A typical outfit for Sora consisted of a red t-shirt, a dark blue zippered hoodie, a pair of dark wash blue jeans and a pair of unique yellow and blue Converse hightops. He rarely deviated from this outift, only changing the colors of his shirt and hoodie.

"Sora, come on! You're going to be late," Cloud called up the stairs, rushing the teen to come down and eat his breakfast.

Sora grabbed his bookbag and thudded down the stairs, nearly tripping over the same box his father had earlier. "Ugh… God Dad, we seriously need to unpack more of these boxes."

"I've been so busy with work, it's hard to even think about the house right now," Cloud said, taking a bite of his bagel.

Sitting down to his PopTart, Sora shrugged, "I don't even know how we have this much stuff. I mean, we didn't even take everything from the island."

"This house is also considerably smaller than our house on the island," Cloud pointed out, finishing his breakfast.

"Has work been going well?" Sora asked him, wondering how his father's new job was going.

Cloud stretched a little, smiling, "It's been great! I'm telling you, this lab… it's letting me do so much more than I've ever been able to do on my own. This move has been nothing but good for me and my career."

"I'm glad to hear it, Dad," Sora grinned, genuinely happy that his dad was enjoying his work.

"So you remember how to get to school?" Cloud asked him, standing up and pushing his chair in.

Sora scoffed, rolling his eyes, "You only drove me by there six times squawking directions like a damn GPS. I'll be fine, Dad. Get to work."

"You need to leave soon, you know," he warned his son, grabbing his keys.

"Dad, you're smothering me," Sora teased him, winking as he downed his juice and grabbed his own car keys.

Driving was one of the first things Sora had to learn when they moved to the Mainland. They had no use for cars on the island, just a little golf cart they used to get around. His dad had surprised him a week ago with his own truck. It was a beater of a pick-up, but it would get him from point A to point B painlessly enough.

Heading out to his truck, Sora took a few deep breaths as reality came crashing down on him. This was it. He was really about to start high school. His anxiety was through the roof… what if he was just the weird island boy who didn't know how to make friends? What if nobody talked to him at all?

It was time to find out.

x-x-x-x-x

"Sora… Strife? Take a seat wherever you'd like," his first teacher of the day told him, waving him towards the still half empty classroom. "You're caught up through your homeschooling, correct?"

"Yes Ma'am, we took an extra month to settle in before I started here, but I stayed current with my classes online," he told her, looking out over the available seats. He had no idea where he should sit.

The teacher nodded, "Perfect. Class starts in five minutes."

His eyes had glazed over while he tried to decide what desk to take when suddenly some girl was waving her arms like a lunatic and whispering to Sora, "Hey! Come sit with us!"

He shrugged and approached the black-haired girl, taking the seat in front of her. "Uh… thanks. I'm Sora," he introduced himself, extending his hand.

The weird girl stared at his hand, not recognizing the hand shake before she flipped her hair and clicked her tongue, "So I'm Xion… This is my sister Namine and my boyfriend Riku."

He studied them carefully, wondering if he'd ever met the girls before. "You two look so similar… are you twins?"

"Triplets, actually," the blonde girl to his right answered, "We have a third sister, Kairi."

"So I hear you're from the island! Was that a fun place to live?" Xion interupted Sora before he had a chance to respond to Namine.

Sora just sighed heavily, "Yeah… it really was. I miss it already. Wow, word travels fast around here, doesn't it?"

"Xion feels the need to know everything all the time," Riku interjected, seeming a little pissed off.

Namine rolled her eyes, "Also, our mom Aerith Gainsborough works with your dad at the marine biology lab. She told us to keep an eye out for you. Have you really never been to a real school?"

"Nope… it's always just been me and my dad," he told them, putting together the pieces of the puzzle in his mind. "So… I bet my dad told your mom that he was worried I wouldn't make friends, right?"

"Sort of," Xion admitted, flipping her hair again, "But like… we totally are okay with showing you around. I mean, I'd be like… terrified if I had to start school for the first time at 17 years old."

Sora stared at her for a moment, "Uh… thank you?"

"Oh, you're so welcome. Believe me, you're totally going to need us to survive this place. It's like… scary sometimes," she said, her voice lilting as she rambled.

"That's… reassuring…" Sora trailed off, turning towards the front of the classroom as the teacher started class. Well, people were talking to him. He just wasn't sure if he could stand much more of Xion's obnoxious voice.

x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile, Roxas Fair was settling into his own desk as class drew near, his first year at Destiny High already about a month underway. He was finally coming out of the "new kid" phase and starting to fit in with his own strange group of friends.

"Hey, so guess what I heard today," his best friend Demyx said as he took his seat next to Roxas. "Youuu aren't the new kid anymore."

Roxas cocked an eyebrow, turning to face him, "Oh yeah? What kid was dumb enough to start school a month in?"

"Some guy named Sora. I heard from the Gainsborough triplets that he grew up on the island like a heathen."

"Oh come on… Don't you think you're overexaggerating just a little bit?" Roxas questioned him, rolling his eyes. It was typical of Demyx to blow things out of proportion.

Suddenly Demyx went quiet and swatted Roxas on the arm, "Dude, that creepy guy is staring at us again…"

Roxas slyly caught a glance of the accused "creepy guy" out of the corner of his eye, turning back to Demyx and sighing, "For the millionth time, Axel isn't that creepy. He's just quiet."

"Uhhh, sorry Roxas but you didn't grow up with him around. Axel is a freakin weirdo. He listens to heavy metal and has all these tattoos and piercings and shit. I think he worships the devil."

That just earned the dirty-blond musician a blank stare, "Demyx, _I_ listen to heavy metal. It doesn't mean I worship the devil, and neither does Axel. So he dresses a little …darkly. So what? Have you ever even tried to talk to him before?"

"Hell no," Demyx shook his head, "I can't even bring myself to look him in the eye. Why does he keep staring at us like that? He never did that before."

Roxas glanced back at the strange redheaded man again, wondering for a moment why people seemed to hate him so much. He was eccentric, sure, but he seemed harmless. "I don't know, Dem… but don't spread rumors about him worshiping the devil. That's not fair to him."

"Whatever, man… he freaks me out," Demyx mumbled as class started. The two turned to face forward, but Roxas was finding it a little difficult to focus on the teacher. He could feel a set of eyes boring into the back of his head. Was Axel still staring at him?

About halfway through their first class, Roxas felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He knew who it was immediately and took it out under his desk, trying not to get caught.

_Olette: Good morning darling! Hope you have a wonderful day._

Roxas smiled, finding the message from his long distance girlfriend comforting.

_Roxas: You as well, doll. Anything happen over the weekend? Sorry I couldn't talk much. I've already got loads of homework._

_Olette: Ohh, Hayner got into a fight with Seifer on Saturday! Kicked his ass too._

_Roxas: Whoa… seriously? Way to go, Hayner! I wish I could have seen that._

_Olette: It was amazing. I don't think Seifer is going to bother us anymore._

_Roxas: Thank God. That guy was an ass._

_Roxas: I wish I was there… I miss you guys a lot._

_Olette: We miss you too, Rox. _

The eyes Roxas felt on him now were the teacher's. He raised his eyebrow and Roxas quickly slid his phone back into his pocket, straightening up and paying more attention. The presence behind him was still staring holes into the back of his head, making him squirm uncomfortably in his chair.

Class ended shortly after, and as he gathered his books Roxas turned around to meet the most unbelievably gorgeous, heart stoppingly green eyes. Axel stayed motionless in his chair, but Roxas could almost feel the air being sucked from the room as the redhead gasped softly. The two of them locked eyes for a long moment before Demyx stepped in between them.

"Rox, come on. We're going to be late for chem."

The blond teenager blinked a few times, turning his gaze to his best friend. "Uh, yeah… sorry, I was thinking about something."

"Ooh, your girlie friend?" Demyx prodded as they headed into the hallway.

"Yeah… I really miss her," he lied, thoroughly confused by the events that had just taken place.

The mohawked boy just shook his head, "I still don't get why you're still with her. I mean, Twilight Town is like a billion miles from here. Will you actually ever see her again?"

"You just know how to make a guy feel great," Roxas mumbled, sulking into chem class.

x-x-x-x-x

"Sora! Sit with us!" a familiar, screeching voice sounded as Sora walked into the art room. Xion was again waving her arms around like a moron as if her voice wasn't notification enough of their location.

He took a seat by the peculiar sisters yet again, noticing the look of permanent disdain on Riku's face as his girlfriend finally settled back down. However, next to them was a new girl whose face he couldn't quite see under the hood of her hoodie. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"We're all in art together! Isn't this so exciting?" Xion exclaimed, prodding the hooded girl in the side, "Kairi take off that stupid hood and say hi to Sora!"

The girl leered at her sister, a glare Sora could feel even without seeing it. "Shut up, Xion… leave me alone," the girl snapped, yanking her hood even further over her face.

"Oh come onnn," Xion whined obnoxiously, trying to lift Kairi's hood up, "Just say hi… he's really nice!"

Riku slapped Xion's hands away, glaring at her as well. "Knock it off, Xi. Just leave her alone."

"Fine…" the annoying girl pouted, giving Riku a kiss that made Sora's stomach churn. "I'll stop bugging her… Sorry baby…"

As he resisted the urge to gag, he felt Namine tugging at his arm, "Can I talk to you for a second, Sora?"

He nodded, standing up and following her to a secluded corner of the room. "What's up, Namine?"

"So… I'm sure you've noticed that Kairi is a little weird," she started, seeming nervous.

"She seems okay to me, just a little shy," he said with a shrug.

Namine sighed softly, "She's autistic."

Sora looked over at the hooded girl, surprised by that. "But… she still goes to school?"

"It's a mild form… she can function enough to attend classes, but she only talks to Xion and I. And our mother, of course. Through our entire lives, I've never heard her speak a word to anybody else. Xion likes to push her… but I'm already aware that it isn't going to get her anywhere," Namine explained, seeming a bit sad talking about it. "Don't let her freak you out or anything… she's harmless."

"I'm aware that people with autism are harmless, Namine. I'll treat her like anybody else," he said with a shrug, turning to walk back to the table.

Namine caught him by the arm, "There's one more thing… she has an epilepsy disorder. She could have a seizure at any time. She's on medication, but it doesn't always help. Just… don't freak out if she ever has one, Xion and I know what to do."

"Noted," Sora said, saluting her as he approached their table again. He sat down in the seat across from Kairi, hoping to at least introduce himself. "Hi Kairi… I'm Sora. It's nice to meet you."

She lifted her head slightly to look at him, suddenly gasping and sitting straight up. Sora was met with shockingly blue eyes… eyes that he immediately recognized. "You're the boy from the island."

As she spoke, Kairi lowered her hood down to reveal that she was, in fact, the beautiful redhead that Sora hadn't been able to keep off of his mind. She shook her head a little, her gorgeous hair falling into place around her pale white face.

Sora was completely unaware of the shocked looks they were receiving from her sisters. "You're the girl… you came to our beach last summer."

"You rememeber me…?" she whispered, her big blue eyes going wide.

"Why is she talking to him? I don't understand… what are they talking about?" Xion's hushed whispers were louder than she thought.

"Of course I remember you," Sora let the rest of the world melt away, his eyes staying trained on hers. "How could I forget those amazing eyes?"

Kairi blushed deeply, her voice faltering a little in her throat, "Sora… it's nice to meet you too…" She extended a slim hand to him, a smile touching her lips.

Xion looked like her head was about to explode as the two shook hands. "I don't think Kairi has willingly let anybody touch her before…"

Sora looked over at Kairi's sisters, shrugging, "Apparently she lets me."

x-x-x-x-x

"Roxas, why is Axel sitting at our lunch table?" Demyx pulled his best friend aside right as he entered the lunchroom.

Huffing, Roxas yanked his arm away, "I don't fucking know, but there's nowhere else to sit."

"Oh hell no, Rox… I am _not_ sitting with that freak," Demyx recoiled, sneering at the redhead who was sitting there quietly reading a book with his headphones in.

The blond rolled his eyes, marching over to the table and sitting down without a word. His friend scrambled after him looking terrified as he sat down as far away from Axel as he could.

"I don't like this, Roxas…" he whispered, holding his hand over his mouth so Axel couldn't see what he was saying.

This odd miscommunication was irritating Roxas, and it was going to stop. He leaned over the table and yanked Axel's earbuds out of his ears, giving him a stern look, "Hello. My name is Roxas. You're Axel, right?"

This certainly startled him, causing Axel to look up and meet Roxas' eyes again. "Yes."

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Roxas' words were short and to the point.

"Not at all," he said, actually seeming rather polite.

Roxas looked at Demyx, "Problem solved. Do I need to hold your hand in the lunch line too?"

A strange noise elicited from the other side of the table, and Roxas looked over to see Axel trying to hide a smirk. "I'll hold your seats while you're gone…" he mumbled, turning his attention back to his book.

When the pair returned to their seats with their trays, Roxas noticed that Axel had set his iPod aside and left his headphones off. Did he actually intend to talk to them?

"So, Axel… What were you listening to?" Roxas asked him, making the boy jump a little.

"Uh… Motionless in White…" he mumbled, a slight blush tinting his cheeks.

Roxas grinned, "If Devil's Night isn't your favorite song, Immaculate Misconception has to be."

This seemed to shock Axel down to the core. "I can't decide which I like better, actually. The last line of Immaculate Misconception always gets me."

"'I may not have built this kingdom, but I'll make fucking sure that I protect it from you,'" the two of them said in unison, causing Roxas to blush now.

"You really like them?" Axel asked in disbelief, giving Roxas an incredulous look.

Roxas just laughed, "Yeah, they're my favorite band."

"What about—"

"In This Moment?" Roxas cut him off, knowing exactly where he was going with it. "Maria is amazing."

Axel seemed impressed, "Wow… I misjudged you."

"I think there's been a lot of false judgement happening lately," Roxas said, glancing over at Demyx, who was staring back at him with a look of horror. "What?"

"I just have never seen anybody carry out a conversation with him," Demyx said, trying to play it off.

Roxas rolled his eyes, "He can hear you, dickhead."

"Oh God, don't hurt me!" Demyx squeaked, grabbing his tray and running away from the table.

"I am… terribly embarrassed by my friend's idiocy," Roxas said to Axel, "Please don't hold it against me."

Axel just shrugged, "I'm used to it…"

Feeling bad, Roxas scooted around the table to sit closer to him. "I don't get it… why are people so afraid of you?"

"Besides the fact that I'm covered in tattoos and have facial piercings? Probably that I wear all black and listen to Motionless in White. Oh, and I smoke too. That tends to send people running."

"You've never done anything …scary?"

Axel scoffed, laughing a little, "Roxas… the people at this school do nothing but judge. They already think you're gay just because you hang out with Demyx."

"Demyx is gay?" Roxas cocked an eyebrow, genuinely curious.

"Demyx has been gay since he could talk," Axel told him, enlightening him with the new information. "I assume you are not?"

Roxas chuckled, "No, I have a girlfriend. Wait, so he's really gay? Wow… there were no gay people at my old school."

"I think you'll find that quite a few people around here are, actually," he said cryptically before gathering his things. "Why do you think I've been staring at you?" he whispered as he brushed past Roxas to leave.

Roxas just sat there for a moment, his mouth hanging open for a moment as the bell for class rang. Had Axel just admitted an attraction to him? Was Axel actually gay? He was probably messing with him.

"Sooo what the ever-living fuck what that about?" Demyx caught him in the hallway.

"What? Axel is a nice guy," Roxas told him, shrugging as he approached his locker.

Demyx looked like he was ready to pass out, "He is _not_ a nice guy, Roxas. He drinks and smokes and… and… pierces things that shouldn't be pierced!"

"Were you ever going to tell me that you're gay?" Roxas changed the subject abruptly.

The other teen stopped in his tracks, "Who told you that? Axel?"

"Well, is it true or not?"

"I mean… yeah," Demyx admitted, "I guess I just never… told you. I dunno, people can usually tell right away."

Roxas chuckled, "Well you are the first gay man I've ever seen, so I really had no way of knowing. I mean, you don't really act gay."

"Should I?" Demyx countered, seeming a little offended.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Roxas told him, closing his locker and heading for math class. "Look, I don't give two fucks if you're gay. I was just surprised to hear it."

Demyx huffed, following him on his heels. "Aren't you worried people will think you're gay?"

"According to Axel, it's a pretty common thing here. So no, I don't really care. Besides, I have a girlfriend," Roxas reminded him, turning into the classroom.

"Well… promise me you won't start hanging out with that guy," Demyx said as they took their seats. "He's bad news…"

Roxas just sighed, sinking further down into his chair. Axel seemed harmless, and Demyx was beginning to get annoying with all of his judgement.

x-x-x-x-x

"Mom… Mom, are you alive?" Roxas prodded his mother, who was laying on their couch at 3:40 in the afternoon either sleeping or passed out. When she elicited no response, he pried the bottle of vodka from her fingers and set it aside, covering her with a blanket. She was breathing… but she wouldn't be waking up any time soon.

Out of boredom, Roxas approached his step father in his office, "Hey Zack… how's it going?"

"Hey Roxas…" he mumbled, his nose stuck in a case file. "I've got the strangest case."

"Yeah? What's it about?"

Zack took his glasses off, looking up at his step son. "Ah, you wouldn't understand all my legal talk. How was school?"

"Fine… Mom is passed out again. Do you think she's going to wake up this time?"

Zack's jaw tightened and he cleared his throat, "She had a rough morning… the diner still won't hire her as a waitress."

"Good thing you make so much money," Roxas said sarcastically, truly wishing that his mother would find something, _anything_ to do that would get her off of the couch. "I thought you said this move would help her."

"I really hoped that it would, but ever since we got here she's seemed even more depressed than usual. I would give up my entire law firm to see her happy again, but… is there really any point now?"

Zack Fair had moved his family to the Mainlands to open his own law firm, which was doing incredibly well. The only problem was that he had less and less free time to spend with his alcoholic wife, which meant she spent most days wasted watching soap operas on the TV.

"Don't give up on her, Zack… please," Roxas said, drifting out of the office and heading for his bedroom. Today had just been… exhausting. On top of that, he had piles of homework from classes he wasn't paying attention in.

x-x-x-x-x

"Sora! How was your first day?" Cloud attacked his son the minute he walked through the door.

"Dad, did you leave work early just to greet me?" Sora laughed, stepping inside and hanging his keys on the hook.

Cloud's eyes darted suspiciously from side to side, "No… I was… sick?" he tried, giving an awful fake cough.

"School was fine, Dad. I met the Gainsborough girls… they were really nice," he said, flopping down on the couch in the living room.

"Did you meet Kairi?" Cloud asked, sitting in his recliner. "Aerith told me about her… it's really a shame."

Sora's face scrunched up, "I don't understand why everyone pities her. She seemed fine to me."

"Sora, she's autistic… people like her can hardly ever function in society."

"Maybe she just needs the right person by her side to help her…" Sora mumbled, closing his eyes. "I think I'm going to take a nap. What's for dinner?"

Cloud thought for a long moment. "Chinese?"

"Sounds good to me. Make it so, pops."

His father stood up to go order, but Sora stopped him in his tracks.

"Hey Dad? Thanks for always being here for me. I really appreciate you trying to make this move as easy on me as possible."

"Of course, kiddo. I would have nothing without you."


	2. Mirror Image

**Author's Note: Before I begin Chapter Two, I want to address something very important. In the original story, I made Kairi schizophrenic. But I felt as if I didn't fully understand the disorder enough to write about it, so I instead chose a disorder that I have much more personal knowledge on. **

**Kairi having autism was not intended to offend anybody with or without the disorder. The reason that I'm having the other students judge her because of it is because I'm trying to bring awareness to the fact that people often judge them unfairly. Sora is intended to show how you should treat someone with autism—like a completely normal person. **

**Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that everybody experiences it differently. Most people with autism can lead entirely normal lives, but it relies heavily on the way that they are raised as well as how they are treated in social situations. **

**While Kairi was raised very well by her mother, Xion's constant pushing has caused her to recoil from society and refuse to interact with anybody but her family. The kids at school, not understanding her disorder, have treated her like an alien. This has pushed her even further into her shell. **

**Sora treating her like he should, absolutely normally, has shown her that she can trust him. That's why she opens up to him how she does. **

**Again, I am completely aware that very many of the people with autism are very high functioning, and I would never try to say that autistic people have any kind of limitations with what they can do with their lives. I've grown up around people with the disorder, and I've seen them graduate college and start amazing careers. **

**If I have offended anybody, I genuinely apologize. I chose this disorder not to upset people, but because I'd like to bring awareness to it through my writing. I almost ommited it entirely because I didn't want to upset anyone, but then I thought about it and I don't care. If somebody chooses to be offended because I included a realistic disorder (that affects many people) in my story, then that's just unfortunate for them. **

x-x-x-x-x

**Chapter Two**

_Mirror Image_

"I think my lunch just moved…" Sora mumbled, poking at the odd looking substance on his tray. Day two of school was going well until he saw what they had for lunch.

"Yeah, what is this supposed to be…? Are those flakes?" Namine lifted some with her fork, examining it. "I thought it was mac and cheese…"

Xion sniffed at it and nearly gagged, "Oh gross, it's tuna!"

The group of friends all pushed their trays to the center of the table at once, none of them able to stomach the disturbing mixture. "Anybody else wanna get some fries?" Riku offered, standing up and dumping his tray in the trash.

"Yes _please_," Xion lept to her feet as well. "Anyone else? We'll go through the line."

They all handed over a couple dollars for fries and the couple disappeared into the crowd towards the snack food line.

"So… Kairi, tell me more about yourself," Sora said, looking over at the cute redhead sitting beside him.

She blushed deeply, looking up at him through another hoodie. "Like… what?"

"Well… what do you like to do outside of school?"

Kairi thought for a moment, "Well… I like to read…listen to music… I write a little…"

_All solitary activites_, Sora noted to himself. "Anything else?"

"I do like to explore the island… and swim, of course," she added, her voice almost a little whisper.

"Oh! You'll have to come to the island with me sometime. I can show you a ton of things most people never get to see," he offered, smiling widely at her. "We still own the property and house out there, so I can show you the private beach. There's this little tide pool that these two crabs live in… they're hilarious."

Kairi gave a soft giggle, "Crabs… hilarious? Howso?"

"They get all territorial with each other every day like they don't remember that they both live there. Every day at noon they have this little battle where they circle each other for like twenty minutes snapping their claws. It's sooo funny."

Namine snorted a little, "Typical island boy… finding interest in the weirdest of things."

"I think it's cute," Kairi mumbled, meeting Sora's sparkling blue eyes.

"Fries for everybody!" Xion announced, setting a tray with about 6 boats of fries down on the table. The hungry teenagers dug in, grateful for something recognizable to eat.

As they ate, Kairi looked up at Sora, "So... what do you like to do outside of school?"

He shrugged, "I dunno… I hang out with my dad a lot. We used to love exploring the island together. I taught myself how to play bass guitar in my free time, something I still love to mess around with sometimes. Other than that… I guess just swimming and watching the marine life."

"Sounds boring," Xion stated, flipping her hair as she ate a fry.

"And you sound like a bitch," Riku told her, mocking the tone of her voice.

Xion just huffed, "You're so mean to me, Riku…"

The white-haired teen just rolled his eyes, looking absolutely done with her. "Maybe if you knew how to interact like a human being..."

His girlfriend squealed in anger, standing up and grabbing her bag before storming out of the lunch room. The rest of the table remained silent, trying not to make eye contact with Riku.

"I'm going to class," he bit out through clenched teeth, snatching his books off of the table as he ran off.

The moment he was out of earshot, Namine let out a loud exhale, "Damn… I knew they had been fighting a lot, but I didn't think it was that bad."

"Why have they been fighting?" Sora wondered, having noticed their discord right away.

"Xion won't tell us… but it seems really bad," Kairi said softly, shifting in her seat a little.

Sora looked down, sighing softly, "Wow… I mean, why don't they just break up?"

"They've been together since middle school… and supposedly are in love. I can see why they wouldn't want to throw that all away," Namine said with a shrug.

"That's some heavy stuff… Do you think they'll be able to resolve whatever it is?"

Namine shrugged, "No idea. I honestly never really thought they were good together. They're polar opposites, if you hadn't noticed."

"I did notice that," he agreed, nodding. "But then why have they been together for so long?"

Kairi sighed, "We honestly have no idea. But between us, I kind of like Riku better than Xion…"

"She really likes to push you, doesn't she?"

"I…" Kairi faltered, looking down at her fiddling hands.

Namine stepped in, "Xion doesn't understand Kairi's disorder… She thinks that she's faking it for attention."

"That's… horrible. That is actually the worst thing I've ever heard," Sora said, his mouth gaping with disbelief.

Kairi sniffled a little, "I… I'm not faking anything…"

"Honey, I know you aren't…" Namine tried to comfort her sister, "Xion just wants the spotlight all the time. She couldn't understand why Mom had to pay more attention to Kairi sometimes."

Sora couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Are you sure Xion doesn't have some kind of disorder?"

"Nah, she's just a bitch," Namine said with a shrug, sighing softly. "Kairi, you need to eat your food, honey… don't play with it."

Sora looked over, watching Kairi line her fries up in a row according to size.

"S..sorry…" Kairi mumbled, but couldn't make herself stop.

"It's compulsive… she can't really stop," Namine informed Sora.

He shrugged and smiled at Kairi, "I think it's cute."

x-x-x-x-x

"Roxas… this might sound weird, but were you at any point wearing a brown wig today?" Demyx blind-sided his best friend with the odd question as he joined him on his way to lunch.

Roxas turned to him, raising an eyebrow, "Uhm… you've asked me a lot of stupid questions before, but this one takes the cake. I definitely was not."

"I passed a guy in the hallway earlier that looks _exactly_ like you… I mean, mirror image, carbon copy. Except the hair, of course," Demyx told him, seeming thoroughly weirded out by it.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence, Dem. Lets just go to lunch."

Demyx didn't seem to want to let it go. "No, you _need_ to come see this guy. He looks so much alike you that I thought he was you! I said hi to him and he gave me the weirdest look."

"I'm not about to hunt some poor kid down and gawk at him like a moron!" Roxas exclaimed, laughing at his friend's incredible lack of common sense.

Fate must have been paying attention, because right at that moment Roxas collided with a tall brunette man, both of them falling to the ground on their asses.

"Fuck… ow… I'm sorry…" Roxas mumbled as he pulled himself to his feet, extending a hand to the other teenager.

He stared up at Roxas, his deep blue eyes wide. The two girls beside him kept looking from boy to boy, trying to wrap their brains around what they were seeing. "You… you look…"

"Exactly like me…" Roxas finished, lifting the other boy to his feet.

"Who the hell are you…?"

Roxas seemed almost in a daze, "Roxas Fair… who are you?"

"Sora Strife. I just started here yesterday."

The two continued to stare at each other, completely baffled. They were the exact same height, exact same skin tone, and their faces could have been mirrored. The only actual difference was their hair color.

"I almost don't want to ask, but what's your birthday?" Roxas cringed a little, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

Sora bit his lower lip nervously, "May 16th… Yours?"

"May 16th…" Roxas let out a deep breath, running his hand through his messy blond hair. "God damn… that really doesn't sound like a coincidence…"

"No… no it doesn't…" Sora groaned, wondering why his life seemed to be developing into a three-ring circus. "Do you know your dad?"

Roxas shook his head, "I have a step dad, but I only know my birth mom."

"And I know my birth father, but I've never had a mother…"

"Oh my God… I bet you two are twins!" Demyx cut in, saying what was on everybody's minds.

Namine squealed a little, "Holy shit, they probably are!"

Roxas felt like bashing his head against the closest locker. "Just… gimme your dad's name and I'll ask my mom about him."

"Cloud Strife…" Sora said, "What's your mom's name?"

"Tifa Lockhart is her maiden name. Look… don't get your hopes up or anything. The chance of us being long lost brothers is highly unlikely," Roxas told him, sighing heavily. "If anything… maybe we're cousins or something."

"With the same birthday and the same face?" Demyx stepped in again, showing skepticism. "Come on, Rox… it's gotta be true."

Roxas brushed his friend off, rolling his eyes, "Bullshit. There's no way this guy is my brother. Now come on, let's go."

As he walked away from Sora, Roxas couldn't help but look back for a moment. They looked so much alike that it made him honestly wonder if maybe he really did have a twin. But… he kept walking. He would talk to his mom that night… if she wasn't smashed.

x-x-x-x-x

"Dad… can we talk for a minute?" Sora asked, stepping into Cloud's bedroom.

"Sure son, what's up?" Cloud wondered, patting the spot next to him on his bed as he set his newspaper aside.

Sora took a deep breath and just went for it, "Does the name Tifa Lockhart mean anything to you?"

That caught his father's attention immediately, "Sora… where did you hear that name?"

"I ran into this kid today in the hallway… he looked exactly like me, but with blond hair, and we have the same birthday. That's his mom's name," Sora explained, fidgeting a little.

"Oh, Sora… Tifa Lockhart is my ex-wife… she's… your mother," Cloud admitted, sighing.

Sora thought he would be prepared to hear that, but he was absolutely wrong. "Dad, you told me that Mom died when I was a baby…"

"Because I didn't want to tell you what really happened… that she abandoned you with me and ran off with my best friend," Cloud said, clenching his jaw a little.

"Would his last name happen to be Fair?"

Cloud chuckled softly, "So they got married…"

"What the hell, Dad?! How could you not tell me I have a brother?!" Sora exclaimed, whacking his dad on the arm.

"Sora, I had no idea…" he trailed off, then finished his story. "See, your mother was still pregnant with you when she left me. A few months later, she showed up on my doorstep with you and a document that forfeited her parental rights. I… I signed your birth certificate as your father and she told me never to contact her again. She never once mentioned that she had twins… Why would she only give me one of you?"

Sora groaned, laying back on the bed and rubbing his temples, "My brain hurts…"

"Is this some sort of joke, Sora? Did you Google your mother and decide to play a prank on me?" Cloud felt the need to ask, laying back next to his son.

"Dad, come on… I couldn't make this shit up if I tried," Sora laughed a little. "His name is Roxas… Roxas Fair. He… he actually looks a lot like you with his blond hair."

Cloud started to chuckle loudly, shaking his head, "Oh God, Sora… Tifa had the thickest dark brown hair I've ever seen, just like yours."

"Apparently we took after the wrong parents," Sora joked, feeling a little bit of the weight lifted off of his chest. At least his father had been honest with him.

"I have another son…" Cloud repeated the idea out loud, still finding it hard to believe. "Do you think he would want to meet me?"

Sora frowned, "I… I'm not sure, Dad… he seemed pretty upset that there was even a possibility of it being true. He's talking to his mom—our mom… right now, probably."

"Oh… well… I'd love to meet him if he ever wanted to…"

"I'll try Dad, but I'm not promising anything."

Cloud nodded, "I understand… are you going to want to meet your mother?"

"Well… I don't know, Dad. Do I want to? I mean, did she really run off with your best friend? Cause that kind of sucks…"

"It's… much more complicated than that. Tifa is a decent person, and I don't blame her for leaving me," Cloud told him, shrugging.

Sora eyed his father carefully, "What did you do…?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Sora… But I think that if you have the opportunity to meet her, you should."

The teenager huffed, "Just tell me what you did! I mean, she was the one having an affair with your best friend."

"Yes… but I had an affair first. Tifa turned to Zack for comfort when she found out, and that's when they ran off together."

Sora sat up straight, looking down at his father, "Dad! You had an affair?! With who?!"

"That's not important, Sora… it was a long, long time ago. I fucked up, and it cost me my marriage. I thought I had lost everything until she brought you to me."

"Did she ever tell you why she didn't want me?" Sora wondered, tilting his head to the side curiously.

Cloud only shrugged, "I can only imagine it was the money. She was a waitress and Zack was still a law student. They were broke."

"But… they obviously kept my brother…"

"Maybe they thought they could afford one of you," Cloud speculated, "I'm honestly not sure. That's something Roxas needs to ask his mom."

Sora nodded, "I'm sure I'll hear all about it tomorrow… I just can't believe it's actually true. I have a brother…"

"Sora… try not to let yourself get hurt. Roxas might not want a brother, remember? It's been 17 years… I wouldn't expect things to just change suddenly," Cloud warned, sitting back up.

"Yeah… you're right. But I've got to at least try to get to know him, right?"

Cloud just sighed, "Just be careful, son."

x-x-x-x-x

"Don't you ever mention that name to me again!" Tifa shouted, hurling her half empty bottle of whiskey at her son's head. Roxas ducked, allowing the bottle to shatter against the living room wall. "That man was the worst thing that ever happened to me!"

"Mom, how do you know Cloud Strife?" Roxas asked again, but she had already laid back down on the couch and thrown a pillow over her face. That was her way of checking out of a conversation.

Enraged, Roxas stormed into his step father's office and slammed the door shut behind him. "Care to tell me who the fuck Cloud Strife is? And maybe why Mom just tried to kill me for mentioning his name?"

"Cloud? Where'd you hear about him?" Zack asked, seeming strangely calm about the situation.

"So you _do_ know him!" Roxas shouted, flinging his hands up over his head. "Who the hell is this guy?!"

Zack raised an eyebrow, "Roxas… Cloud Strife is your father. Didn't Tifa tell you that already?"

"Apparently not!" he exclaimed, sitting down in the armchair in the corner of the office. "Damn it… my father? Really?"

"Roxas, I thought she told you years ago… why is all of this coming up now?"

Roxas narrowed his eyes on Zack, "I ran into Sora today at school."

"Oh…" Zack took his reading glasses off and looked down, "Your brother."

"You knew?!" Roxas turned sideways in the chair, hanging over the edge dramatically. "Fuck! Why didn't anybody tell me?!"

Zack stood up, walking over to his step son and kneeling down beside him. "Roxas… giving away your brother was the hardest thing your mom ever did. We battled over that decision for weeks, but… ultimately, we couldn't afford to keep both of you. If we had kept you both, we never would have survived…"

"But… but why not give us both to Cloud then?!"

"Your mother could barely handle giving him Sora… she's regretted it every day since. But… she knew that it was best for both of you. Cloud didn't have the money to raise twins either. It was the only way we could think of to avoid having to give you up for adoption."

Roxas furrowed his brow, "I don't understand… I mean, we're rich now. We live in what could be classified as a small mansion!"

"Exactly… we're rich _now_. When you were born, I was a law student and your mother was a waitress. We were barely able to afford our own rent."

"Does… does my real dad even know that I exist?" Roxas wondered, trying to absorb the information.

Zack shook his head, "I can imagine he does now if Sora told him about today… but no, Tifa never told him. She knew he would want to see you."

"So she denied me a father and that poor other boy a mother?" Roxas was pissed off again.

That seemed to hurt Zack. "I… I raised you like you were my own, Roxas…"

The blond boy sighed heavily, "I know, Zack… and I'll always appreciate that. But I had the right to know that Cloud existed."

"Like I said… I really thought that Tifa told you years ago."

"How did you and my mom meet?" Roxas changed the course of the conversation.

Zack looked at the floor, "Cloud and I had been best friends since we were toddlers. When we met Tifa in high school they immediately fell in love with each other… but I'd fallen in love with her as well. Obviously I wasn't going to ruin my best friend's relationship by telling them, so I kept quiet about it, all through college. Even at their wedding…"

"So what happened with her and Cloud? Did they fall out of love?"

"Tifa showed up at my dorm one day a good five months pregnant, telling me this crazy story about Cloud. Apparently, she'd found him in bed… with a man," Zack told him, the words sounding off even to Roxas. "She was devastated and just… pissed. Selfishly, I took the opportunity to profess my love to her. Not even a month later we were moving across the country to Twilight Town, I was switching law schools, and she was filing for divorce. When we found out that she was having twins… well, you know the rest of the story."

Roxas cocked an eyebrow, "Another man…? Wow… My dad is gay?"

"According to Tifa… I never did find out for sure if it was true. She certainly seemed upset enough, though."

"Wouldn't you have known if your best friend was gay?" Roxas countered curiously.

Zack just shrugged, "Apparently not. Obviously he had fallen in love with Tifa, so it must have happened somewhere in the midst of their marriage."

"I wonder if Sora knows… but he told me it's always just been them. They lived on the island year round up until now."

Zack chuckled, "Cloud always wanted to move out to the island, but Tifa refused to go with him… that doesn't surprise me at all."

"I… I can't help but imagine what life would have been like if I'd grown up with Cloud… He and Sora seem so close."

"If you want my advice… talk to him. I'm sure he wants to meet you now," Zack told him, shrugging, "But… don't bring Sora here please. Tifa… I don't think she would survive it if she found out."

Roxas frowned, "Is this why she drinks so much? Because she gave Sora away?"

"It was your first birthday that she started… I knew that she felt an overwhelming guilt for splitting you two up, and I guess it was the only way she knew how to cope with it."

"Wouldn't she want to finally see Sora? To hear that he turned out all right?"

Zack shook his head, "No… it's just better if she never finds out. All he would be is a reminder of what she had to do."

"I feel like she has the right to know…"

Zack looked into Roxas' eyes sternly, "You can _not_ tell her. Trust me, Roxas… if she knew, it would kill her."

x-x-x-x-x

The information rushing through Sora's mind was giving him a headache, and all he really wanted to do was go to bed. But the moment he laid down and turned off the lights, he heard his text message tone echo through his room.

Curious as to who was actually texting him, he grabbed his phone and squinted at the bright screen surrounded by darkness.

_Unknown Number: Hi Sora… it's Kairi. Namine gave me your phone number. I wanted to check on you and see if you were okay after today._

Sora smiled a little, flipping his bedside lamp on and turning onto his stomach to text her back.

_Sora: That's really sweet of you, Kai. I'm doing okay._

_Kairi: So… is it true? Is Roxas your brother?_

_Sora: Yeah… But my dad had no idea that he existed._

_Kairi: How is that possible?_

_Sora: My mom left me with him when I was a baby… she never told him about Roxas, and never told him where she was going. _

_Kairi: I don't know what I would do without my mom…_

_Sora: Do you guys have a dad? _

_Kairi: I hardly remember him… he left when we were very young._

_Sora: Do you know why…?_

_Kairi: Uhm… it was because of my disorder._

Sora stared at her message for a long moment, wishing that he hadn't been insensitive enough to ask her that.

_Sora: I'm so sorry, Kairi… I didn't mean to pry._

_Kairi: It's okay… Xion told me awhile ago that it was my fault. She's always blamed me for it._

_Sora: Kairi… _

_Kairi: Really, it's okay. _

_Sora: I don't understand why people treat you so differently. _

_Kairi: You've only known me for two days… _

_Sora: Yeah, and you've been completely normal. _

_Kairi: Sora, before you came to school, I barely spoke to anybody. Sometimes I exclaim things in class, repeat myself over and over… I can't stop it when it happens. I can see why it's embarrassing to be around me._

_Sora: If people can't get over you acting a little differently, then they're not worth your time. Including Xion. _

_Kairi: She's my sister, Sora…_

_Sora: And she treats you like shit._

_Kairi: I really don't even notice it that much. _

_Sora: Then take my word for it. _

_Kairi: You don't have to pretend to care about me, Sora… _

_Sora: I'm not pretending. I haven't been able to keep you off my mind since I saw you on the island. And that was long before I knew about your disorder._

_Kairi: Xion says I can be very hard to be around…_

_Sora: I intend to prove her wrong, then._

This poor girl was being bullied by one of the only people that should truly be there for her no matter what. It needed to come to an end. Kairi might have had some odd quirks because of her disorder, but she was as normal as anybody else otherwise.

_Kairi: If we hang out, people will stare at us… You don't want that._

_Sora: Let them stare! _

_Sora: Hey Kai… I have a question, and I don't want you to be mad about it._

_Kairi: Go ahead, Sora._

_Sora: Most children with autism aren't as… aware of their condition as you are. You seem to fully understand that you have a disorder. Have you always known?_

There was a long pause, followed with a long response.

_Kairi: When I was little, I knew that I was different but I didn't know why. I understand that I don't communicate well with others, and I know that some of the things I do can be weird or compulsive. One day when I was about 13 years old, my mother sat me down and explained everything to me. It was the first time she'd used the word "autism" with me, but I finally understood why I was different. It was actually a relief to me. _

Sora thought about her response for awhile. It made sense that she would find relief in knowing why she was a little different.

_Kairi: I gotta go soon… I kind of stole Namine's phone to talk to you._

_Sora: You don't have your own phone?_

_Kairi: Until now, I had no desire to talk to anyone._

_Sora: Why is it so different with me? I didn't do anything special._

_Kairi: You make me feel… like I'm not that different. _

_Sora: Because I truly believe that you aren't._

_Kairi: Exactly… _

_Kairi: I gotta go… Nami's looking for her phone. See you at school tomorrow._

_Sora: See you. _

He was beginning to understand her a little better. Being friends with her would certainly be interesting, but it was an experience he was dying to have.


	3. Love Lost

**Chapter Three**

_Love Lost_

"We need to talk."

Sora Strife nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden stern voice behind him. He turned to face Roxas, giving a sigh as he nodded, "Yeah… we do."

"Do you have time now?" Roxas asked him, looking at the time on his phone. They had about ten minutes until their first classes.

"Yeah… lets go somewhere private."

The pair headed out to the courtyard in the center of the school, taking a seat on one of the unoccupied benches. It wasn't as private as they would have liked, but it worked well enough.

"So… I talked to my step dad…" Roxas started, fidgeting with his books as he spoke. "Mainly because my mom tried to kill me at the mention of your dad's name."

Sora nodded, "I think I know why… I spoke with Dad, and he told me everything… about his affair, about her running off with his best friend… that they couldn't keep us both…"

"Wait… your dad actually told you that he slept with another man?"

This caught Sora's attention, and he raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Well yeah… Zack told me that my mom caught your dad in bed with some guy named Leon Hart," Roxas told him, shrugging. He had questioned Zack a little more about that, unable to believe that his birth father could really be gay.

"Well Mom is a fucking liar, because Dad would have totally said something to me if he was fucking gay!" Sora shouted, then realized quickly how many heads were turning in their direction.

Roxas held his hands up defensively, "Sorry, man… I thought you knew! Demyx told me you're really close with your dad!"

"Some fucking brother you are…" Sora mumbled, gathering his stuff and standing up, "And by the way, he's your dad too. …I can't believe I was actually excited about this. Leave my family the fuck alone." With that kind sentiment, he stormed back into the building fuming with rage.

The moment he sat down in class, the girls both knew something was wrong. "Sora! What happened? Why do you look so mad? Was he not your brother?" Xion chattered incessantly, getting up in his face.

"I'm going to need you to back the fuck up, Xion," he growled through clenched teeth. Sora didn't get mad often, but when he was mad, he was furious.

The ignorant and socially retarded girl huffed and backed away from him, pouting up at Riku, "Are you going to let him talk to me like that?" she whined, making all of them cringe.

"Uhm… yeah? The guy is obviously upset," Riku said, not even looking at her. "Is there anything we can do to help? he offered Sora, genuinely concerned.

Sora was nearly vibrating with rage at that point, ready to snap his desk in half as he tried to explain, "He's my brother… but that asshole will _never_ be my family…" he bit out slowly.

"Oh, Sora… please tell us what happened," Namine said, placing her hand on his arm gently in an attempt to comfort him.

He snatched the limb away from her, "His bitch mother is going around telling people that my dad is gay."

This sparked all of their interest. "Gay…? Wasn't he like… married to her at one point? Ooh, or were you bastard babies?" The entire class turned to stare at Xion, who didn't seem to understand why her questions were so incredibly stupid. "_What?_"

Namine kept her voice hushed, her large blue eyes locked on him with a look of pity. "Sora… you don't believe that he's gay, do you?"

"Of course not! That's fucking bullshit!" Sora exclaimed, paying no mind to the crowd of people listening to him.

"But… why would your mom lie like that?" Riku asked, "I mean… are you totally sure?"

Sora sighed heavily, finally quieting his voice down. "I… I don't know… they even mentioned a specific person. Some guy named Leon Hart?"

It was as if the air was sucked from the room as Riku's eyes widened. Xion let out a loud, cackling laugh and shook her head, "Oh holy shit… that's Riku's dad!"

"So… it's definitely not true, right? I mean, Riku's parents are still together," Namine said, looking hopeful.

Riku just stared straight forward, a permanent look of shock on his face as class started.

Sora could only hope that he was wrong… that his father hadn't been lying to him for his entire life. It was true that Cloud never dated women, but… on the island there weren't really any women to date.

He was still seething with anger, but he had calmed down enough to make it through class.

"Sora…" Riku caught him after class, eyeballing Xion with the intention of her leaving.

Once they were alone, the brunette looked at his friend, "What?"

"Can you… not mention my dad's name to anybody please? I really don't want this getting around school…" he pleaded, still looking like he was about to throw up.

"Of course, Riku… I'm sorry I was so loud before, I'm just… mad," Sora was trying very hard not to just punch the nearest hard object.

Riku sighed in relief, "Thanks, man… I just can't imagine… I mean, my parents have always been happy together."

"I'm sure that my mom was just being spiteful…" Sora tried to reassure himself, but he didn't even believe it.

"Uhm… I know it's none of my business, but… Maybe you should give Roxas another chance. It sounds like he was just repeating what his mom said…" Riku tread carefully, seeing the anger in Sora's eyes.

This gave Sora something else to think about. He might have jumped down Roxas' throat a little too quickly.

x-x-x-x-x

"Roxas!"

It was the blond's turn to jump out of his skin as Demyx appeared beside him. "Don't you ever just say hello?"

"Uhm, no. Hey so I know you're upset because of the smackdown Sora gave you in the courtyard, but I have a bigger concern," his odd friend rambled on. "Axel is at our fucking lunch table _again_."

"Uh… yeah. I invited him to sit with us earlier," Roxas said as they entered the lunch room. "Can you stop talking about him like he's diseased?"

Demyx sneered, "I bet he is… he always looks dirty."

"You're pissing me off, Demyx… just talk to the guy. He's totally harmless!"

The two of them went through the lunch line, then took their seats at the table. Roxas chose to sit right next to Axel, trying to force Demyx to speak at least in his direction.

"Roxas… I heard what happened with Sora. I hope that he calms down…" Axel mumbled, his cheeks tinting pink as Roxas sat down so close to him.

"Actually, one of those weird triplet girls told me he wanted to talk after school," Roxas said, shrugging, "Maybe he came around… I mean… I really didn't know what I was saying."

Demyx looked like he wanted to speak, but nothing was coming out of his mouth.

"Dem… have something to say?" Roxas raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"Uh… I was just going to agree. There was no way you could have known that your dad didn't share that little detail…" as he spoke, his eyes kept darting towards Axel.

Axel was done with the strange looks, "All right, look. I know I freak you out or something but you have no reason to treat me like some sort of leper. I'm a human being, I deserve just as much respect as anybody else."

Demyx squirmed in his seat a little, "I…"

"He's right, Demyx… you're my best friend, but if you can't get over your stupid judgemental crap, don't expect me to hang out with you anymore," Roxas added.

"I'm sorry… I guess I've been kind of stupid…" Demyx mumbled, looking down at his tray.

Axel sighed, "You know, don't you?"

The musician suddenly sat up straight, shaking his head, "N..no! I… I… I won't tell anybody!"

"Know what?" Roxas wondered, looking over at the redhead.

"Demyx, that was all in the past… I know what people say, but it wasn't my fault," Axel continued cryptically.

Demyx relaxed in his seat a little, "It wasn't…?"

"What the hell is going on?!" Roxas wondered, feeling incredibly out of the loop.

Axel shook his head, "No… If it was, don't you think I'd be in prison?"

"I… I guess…" Demyx admitted.

"Prison?!"

Axel turned to the confused blond and sighed, "It's a long story… One I really would rather not share until I know you better."

"Axel, I'm really sorry… I just… I heard what happened and I immediately judged you for it," Demyx apologized. "It was unfair of me, and I'll try to keep a more open mind in the future."

Roxas' mind was absolutely blown by the secrecy, and he was about to start asking questions when his phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Pence, a friend from his old school.

_Pence: Rox… I… I walked in on them…_

_Roxas: What the hell, Pence? _

_Pence: Olette and Hayner… they… they're sleeping together._

_Roxas: Uhm… is this some sort of sick joke? Cause it's not funny. _

_Pence: They were in the hideout… I was just looking for my skateboard and I caught them. I'm not lying to you, Roxas…_

_Roxas: Then why don't I believe you?_

_Pence: Rox, they told me they've been sleeping together since before you moved._

"What the fuck?!" Roxas exclaimed out loud, standing up abruptly and knocking his and Axel's trays off the table.

"Jesus, Roxas! What the hell?!" Axel shouted, now wearing his lunch.

Roxas took off, finding the nearest bathroom and locking himself in a stall to continue to text Pence.

_Roxas: You're lying… you have to be…_

_Pence: I saw it with my own eyes, Roxas… I'm so sorry._

_Roxas: Since before I moved…?_

_Pence: For months at least. _

_Roxas: Fuck… Fuck! How could they do that to me?!_

_Pence: I don't know… I thought I knew them so well…_

_Roxas: We've been friends since we were infants…_

_Pence: I know, Roxas… I wish I was lying, I really do._

_Roxas: God, could he really not just keep it in his pants?!_

_Pence: Rox… they're in love._

That was the nail in the coffin for Roxas, and he threw his phone down on the floor and took a swing at the door of the bathroom stall. "God damn it!" he shouted, a sob catching up in his throat as he yelled.

"Roxas…?" a voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"Leave me alone," he growled, not even caring who it was.

The person picked up his phone and knocked on the stall door, "Roxas… are you okay?"

"Just get the fuck out!" Roxas yelled, slamming his hand against the door again.

"It's Axel… can you please come out and talk to me?"

Roxas' breath caught in his throat when he realized who it was, and something about it made him open the stall door. He immediately crumbled before the tall man, sobbing uncontrollably as he let his emotions hit him.

Axel caught the boy as he broke down, pulling him into his chest in an attempt to comfort him. "What happened…?"

"She… she… she was cheating on me…"

"Uhm… who?" Axel wondered, never knowing about Roxas' long distance girlfriend.

He looked up at Axel, blue eyes filled with tears, "Olette… we had been together since like… elementary school. I… I thought she was the girl I was going to marry… and she's sleeping with my best friend!"

"…Demyx?"

"No! She's from my hometown… We've been together long distance since I moved."

Axel seemed thoroughly confused, but he was trying really hard to catch up. "So that's who you text all the time…"

"What?" Roxas looked up at him, now confused as well.

"I just… have noticed you texting someone in class often…" Axel admitted, flushing bright red. "It's not important… So she's sleeping with your best friend from back home?"

Roxas burst into a fresh set of tears, clinging to Axel, "Another friend caught them together… he told me… they'd been doing it before I even left… Months of my life… it was all lies…"

"Damn… Roxas, I… I don't even know what to say… that's rough…"

"Apparently… they're in love…" Roxas' chest heaved heavily as he spoke. The words tasted like poison as he spoke them. "I… I can't even breathe…"

Axel continued to hold the boy close to him, "Just relax… try to calm down a little… Take a few deep breaths…"

As he started to calm down a little, Roxas became hyper-aware that Axel was shirtless. "Uhm… Axel… is there a reason you aren't wearing a shirt?"

"Roxas, you threw my lunch tray into my lap. I came in here to change into my gym clothes when I heard you," Axel told him, pointing to his gym bag resting on the sink.

"Are… are your nipples pierced?" Roxas looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, unable to hold back a little laugh.

Axel rolled his eyes and chuckled, letting go of Roxas and grabbing his fresh t-shirt. "Tell nobody," he warned, sliding the shirt over his head.

"Hey, I'm not judging…" Roxas said, forgetting for just a moment why he'd been so upset.

"Are you feeling any better?" Axel asked him, meeting his eyes.

Roxas sighed, "I… I'm not going to be okay for a long time…"

"I know what it feels like to be completely betrayed… if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm great with advice," Axel offered, shoving his food covered shirt into his bag.

"You… you've been cheated on?"

Axel shrugged, "He was a jerk anyways…"

"So you're really…"

"Gay? Yeah, I thought I told you that a couple days ago," Axel cut him off, laughing a little.

Roxas huffed, "Well excuse me for not decoding your cryptic message."

"Wanna hear a secret?" Axel asked him suddenly, giving him a silly grin.

"Always."

"Your friend Demyx… back in freshman year we kind of fooled around a few times. Now… he acts like he's never spoken to me," Axel told him, leaning against the sink.

Roxas looked startled at that, "But… Demyx acts like he's terrified of you."

"Oh, he is. I, uh… I didn't always look like this."

The blond trailed his eyes over Axel, "So… you changed your style and he shut you out? And by the way, what on Earth were you talking about before? Prison? Really?"figure that

"Okay… since I know about your girlfriend, I guess I can tell you… Everybody else knows anyways," Axel started, sighing heavily, "So… back in freshman year when Demyx and I were kind of together, there was… this freak accident…"

"Accident…? Like a car crash?"

Axel shook his head, "No… like my house burning to the ground in the dead of night…"

"Oh fuck," Roxas said, "I mean… I'm so sorry…"

"My parents… they didn't make it out in time… And before you start spewing apologies and pity, I'm well over it. I wasn't very close with them when they were alive, and while I miss them now… I'll be fine. Anyways… the police accused me of starting the fire."

Roxas nodded, "So that's why you would have gone to jail…"

"They never found enough evidence to support their case against me, so the case was dismissed and I was set free. But… when the other students found out that I was accused, they all immediately jumped to the worst of conclusions."

"So… where do you live now? I mean… do you have family in the area?" Roxas wondered.

The redhead laughed, "No, I actually live by myself. My parents left me a very generous trust, and now that I'm 18, I can access it. I had been living with my cousin Yuffie and her parents, but the moment I could afford it, I found an apartment and never looked back."

"Wow, not really a family man, huh?"

"I appreciate what my aunt and uncle did for me, but… all I could feel was them judging me. Every day, every waking moment… I knew that they blamed me for the fire," he said, his eyes trailing over the blond absently as he spoke. "Yuffie was the only one who ever believed me…"

Roxas leaned back against the bathroom stalls, sighing, "Wow…"

"When I finally came back to school, I decided to just… be myself. Everyone hated me anyways, so… I got the tattoos I always wanted, I started wearing all black, I—"

"Pierced your nipples?" Roxas teased, smiling softly.

Axel laughed, "That too…"

"Well, for the record, I don't find it scary. Honestly, I kind of love your style," Roxas told him, being completely truthful.

"Well with your taste in music, that doesn't surprise me," Axel smiled, meeting Roxas' eyes again.

Roxas inhaled sharply as their eyes locked, wondering why his body elicited that reaction. "Uhm…"

"So, are you going to be okay? My distraction tactic worked?" Axel broke the silence.

"I… I think so…" he nodded, still a little shaky. "I just… need some time to fully absorb what happened…"

The two were about to leave the bathroom when Axel suddenly turned to him, "Hey, Roxas?"

"Yeah?" the blond stopped at the door.

"You're the only person who hasn't asked me if I really did start that fire," Axel told him, his cheeks flushing a little. "I just… I appreciate it."

Roxas only shrugged, "It's none of my business, and I don't need to know. But just between us, I don't think you did it anyways."

x-x-x-x-x

As the last bell rang, Sora took a deep breath and headed for the courtyard. He didn't particularly want to talk to Roxas again, but he'd promised his friends that he would give the guy a chance.

"Sora…?" the tiniest of voices squeaked from behind him.

He turned to face the gorgeous little redhaired beauty, smiling widely, "Kairi… hello."

"Y…you were really quiet in art class today… I thought maybe you were mad at me for texting you last night…" she whispered, looking down at her feet.

"Oh… Kairi, no… I had a fight with Roxas. It had nothing to do with you," he assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Kairi smiled very softly, "Oh… Okay," she said, turning to leave.

"Wait, Kai," he grabbed her hand and gently pulled her back towards him.

"Yeah?" she wondered, tilting her head slightly as she looked up at him.

He smiled, "Uhm… wanna hang out sometime?"

"Sure, Sora…" she said, shifting on her feet, "When?"

"Hmm… tomorrow night? You could come over to my place," he offered, his heart starting to beat more rapidly.

She seemed a little anxious as she answered, "S…sure… Sounds good. I'll just have to ask my mom. I'll text you later from Nami's phone."

"Perfect," he said with a grin, compulsively leaning down and giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. The action shocked him almost as much as it shocked her, but he tried to play it off. "I have to go meet Roxas… I'll see you tomorrow, Kai."

Kairi only nodded, turning and walking away silently as she tried to process what he'd done. She didn't really understand why people did things like that, but something in her gut was telling her that she liked it.

Sora finally made his way to the courtyard, finding Roxas on one of the benches checking the time on his phone. "Hey, sorry… I got caught up with a friend."

Roxas jumped a little, slipping his phone into his pocket, "It's okay… I was texting one of my friends anyways."

"I… I heard about your outburst at lunch… is everything all right?" Sora wondered, trying to be friendly.

"No… nothing is okay right now… but it will be," Roxas told him, sighing heavily.

Sora nodded, letting the subject go, "So… I might have jumped down your throat a little too hastily earlier… I shouldn't have been mad at you, you were only telling me what you heard."

"I get it, Sora… If someone told me my dad was gay, I'd freak out too. I mean… I guess technically they did…"

"It's kind of fucked up, isn't it? This whole situation… I never even imagined that I could have a long lost twin somewhere out there," Sora said, sitting down on the bench next to him.

Roxas nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I really hadn't thought about it either."

There was a long moment of silence between them before Sora spoke again, "So… what's Mom like?"

"She… she tries really hard…" Roxas mumbled, obviously holding something back.

"You said she tried to kill you for mentioning Dad's name… does she do stuff like that a lot?"

Roxas laid his head in his hands, really not wanting to tell Sora how she really is. "Only when she's drunk… which is pretty much all the time…"

"Oh…" Sora trailed off, frowning a little. He'd spent so much time thinking about his mother, but he never imagined that she would be a drunk. "S…sorry…"

"I'm used to it now… Besides, Zack takes good care of me when he has the time," Roxas shrugged, "But anyways… it seems like you're close with …Dad… What's he like?"

He smiled, grateful to have his father, "He's awesome… he's one of the best marine biologists around, but he's an even better dad. Growing up on the island, I kind of had no choice but to be friends with him. He's always there for me… no matter what."

"Wow… it sounds like you've had a pretty easy life…"

"It came with it's own troubles. I never had any friends my own age, and in the summer when the kids would come to the island they always avoided me because they thought I was weird. I… I actually can't believe how quickly I made friends here."

Roxas snorted, "Yeah, but that Xion chick? She's a fucking basket case."

"She pisses me off… but her sisters are really nice, and so is her boyfriend."

"Even he seems to hate her!" Roxas chuckled, not understanding his brother's strange friends.

Sora shrugged, "I guess it's a whole thing… I don't know. Anyways, your friends seem nice."

"It's pretty much just Demyx and me…" Roxas admitted, not surprised at all that he hasn't made more friends.

"What about that guy with the bright red hair? You seemed like friends to me."

Roxas laughed, remembering his conversation with Axel earlier, "Yeah… I guess we are. He might not look like it, but he's a really good guy."

"I don't want to overstep or anything… but he seems really into you," Sora told him, glad that they were just …talking.

"Whoaaa, you don't think I'm gay, do you?" Roxas asked, his eyes wide. "Is it cause of Demyx? I mean, he's totally just a friend…"

Sora chuckled, "No! I never said that. But… Namine told me that he is, and it's kind of obvious that he likes you."

"Well… hopefully he can settle for just being friends," Roxas said, not wanting to hurt Axel's feelings.

"Is it just me, or are there a ton of gay people in this place?" Sora wondered out loud, thinking that maybe Roxas noticed too.

His brother cracked up, nodding in agreement, "It doesn't even make sense with how judgemental the students tend to be… apparently being gay is the one thing they _don't _make fun of you for."

"Maybe it's just the people we attract…" Sora pointed out, noting that both of Roxas' friends were gay.

"Excuse me? You're the one with the psycho-bitch friend!" Roxas continued to laugh, actually enjoying the time with Sora.

Sora took a moment to look at Roxas, smiling a little. He'd misjudged him this morning, but he was glad that he gave him a second chance. If anything, he could see them being friends. "Roxas… we should hang out more."

"I… I actually agree."


	4. Kiss Me

**Chapter Four**

_Kiss Me_

It had been a little over a week since Sora met his brother, and he was surprised to find that things were still going pretty well between them. Today, they planned on eating lunch together and having their friends officially meet each other. Though all of them had always gone to school together, it seems as if they'd never so much as spoken to each other.

"Sora!"

The brunette smiled as he saw a certain little redhead heading straight for him. He met her halfway, pulling her into a friendly hug, "Hello, dollface. How're you doing?"

"I'm okay… I was just wondering if you wanted to walk to the art room together," Kairi offered in her soft little voice.

"Of course," he said, grabbing his sketch book from his locker and closing it. "Wasn't your last class like all the way on the other side of the school?" he asked, wondering why she would go so far out of her way to meet him here.

She shrugged, "I… uhm… I forgot my drawing pad in my locker…"

He just smiled, starting to walk with her. They'd been hanging out almost every other day after school, and he was really enjoying getting to know her. "So Kairi… Namine told me your 17th birthday is this weekend. Were you going to tell me?"

"I… I don't celebrate my birthday… it seems really weird…" she said, hugging her books to her chest.

Sora laughed, ruffling her hair a little, "You're so silly! We should definitely celebrate it! I mean, it's Xion and Namine's birthdays too… Don't you want to have a party or something with them?"

"N…no… No parties…" Kairi whispered, looking terrified of the idea.

"Well… we could just have some birthday cake at my house if you want. Does that sound better?"

She sighed in relief, relaxing a little, "Yeah… that sounds a lot better…"

As she spoke, her books slipped out of her hands and papers flew everywhere. Sora immediately started to help her gather them, noticing something that surprised him a little, "Wow… you're in all Advanced Placement classes?"

"Y…yes… I just came from AP History…" she told him, picking up a stack of papers.

"These are all A papers… you're really smart, huh?" It wasn't that he thought she wouldn't be, but anybody that could ace AP classes was something special.

She glanced over at him with a confused expression, "I mean… I guess so…"

"That's awesome…" he trailed off, then had a thought, "Hey, so how are you with math?"

"Math? It's super easy. Why?" she looked at him curiously.

Sora pulled out one of his own papers, a math test with a large "D-" written on it. "I… I'm kind of failing…"

She took the paper and looked it over, "This is basic algebra… I could do it in my sleep. How do you not understand this?"

He had to remember that she didn't pick up on social cues as easily. "Well, Miss Genius… can you maybe tutor me then?"

"Oh… Sure, I'd love to help you out!" she chirped, handing him his paper back.

"Tonight after school?"

She nodded, grabbing the last of her papers and standing up. "We really need to get to art… we're about to be late."

Sora followed her to the classroom, incredibly grateful to have some help with math. His dad was good at so many things, but he'd always been pretty useless when it came to math.

x-x-x-x-x

"Morning, Roxas," Axel said with a smile as he took his seat behind the blond.

"Good morning, Axel," he replied, flashing him a bright white grin. "Last night was fun… you were hilarious on that skateboard."

Axel blushed a little, remembering how many times he'd fallen on his face when Roxas tried to teach him how to ride. "Yeah, yeah… I was getting it towards the end!"

"You guys hung out _again_ last night? Jeez, should I start getting jealous?" Demyx wondered, eyeballing the two of them.

"You could've gone with us to the skatepark, Dem," Roxas mentioned, "But you were too busy with… what is it you were doing again? Stalking that geek from the library?"

Demyx's eyes widened and he immediately recoiled, "No! I wasn't at the library last night!"

"Funny… cause your car was," Axel smirked a little. "It's right next to the park, dumbass."

"Damn it…" Demyx mumbled, flushing bright red as he was caught. "I… I wasn't stalking him! I was doing homework."

Axel snorted in disbelief, rolling his eyes, "You don't do homework, Demyx… I remember that much from when we… hung out."

Roxas had to agree with that, "I don't think I've ever seen you open your textbooks."

"Shut up! So what if I was there to see him? Who cares?!" Demyx exclaimed defensively.

"Doesn't he go to school here?" Roxas wondered.

Axel nodded, "Yeah, his name's Zexion. He's a senior."

"Ooh, an older guy? Demyx, you tramp!" Roxas teased his friend, chuckling.

Demyx just groaned, sinking down into his chair. "Obviously I can't talk to him… I'm just a stupid junior…"

Axel cocked an eyebrow, "Dude, you're less than a year younger than him. Actually, I think _I'm _older than him."

"Yeah but you should be a senior anyways," Demyx pointed out, "I still don't get why your parents waited an extra year to put you through school…"

"And now we'll never know," Axel shrugged. "Either way… I think you should talk to him. What's the worst that could happen?"

Demyx panicked, starting to ramble, "Uhm, a million things?! He could tell me to fuck off, or… or… he could make fun of me, or… I could freak him out and totally ruin everything!"

"Or he could think you're adorable and want to hang out?" Roxas said, wondering why Demyx was so afraid. The guy didn't seem mean or anything… just quiet.

"Yeah, right…" Demyx sighed heavily, huffing and crossing his arms over his chest. "That would never happen…"

As class started, the trio settled down into their chairs. It wasn't long before Roxas felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

_Axel: How much do you think he'd freak out if I invited Zexion to eat lunch with us?_

_Roxas: Oh shit… he'd flip out!_

_Axel: I'm totally going to do it. He's in my study hall next period._

_Roxas: Haha… Go for it. Do you think he'd actually sit with us?_

_Axel: He watches Demyx all the time… I noticed a long time ago._

_Roxas: You're a strangely observant person._

_Axel: Thank you! ;D_

Roxas chuckled as he slipped his phone away, now looking forward to lunch for more than one reason. Sitting with Sora and his friends had already promised to bring some entertainment, but the look on Demy's face when Zexion sat down would be pure gold.

x-x-x-x-x

"Hey Kai, wanna sit by me?" Sora asked her as she approached the table with her lunch.

The cute girl nodded and sat down next to him, but then glanced up curiously, "Why are we at such a big table…? I liked our normal spot…"

"Remember, Kairi? Roxas and his friends will be joining us today."

"Oh…" she mumbled, blushing slightly. "That'll be… interesting…"

He could tell she was nervous so he rubbed her back comfortingly. "You don't have to talk to them if you don't want to…"

Kairi stayed silent, but allowed him to rub her back. Soon enough, her sisters and Riku were seated across from them.

"Where's your brother, Sora?" Namine wondered, but her question was quickly answered as the blond approached the table.

Demyx was right on his heels, but Axel was nowhere to be found. Roxas sat down on the other side of Sora, and Demyx took a seat next to Namine. "Uh… hey, sorry we were late," Roxas apologized, setting his tray down and smiling at them. "This is Demyx."

"Dude, we've gone to school together since we were toddlers. We all know Demyx," Riku pointed out, waving at the musician.

"Oh, sorry… I know you guys don't hang out, but it didn't occur to me that you still know each other…" Roxas said awkwardly, staring at his lunch.

Suddenly Demy's eyes went wide and Roxas turned around to see Axel approaching the table with Zexion. "Hey guys… I brought an old friend over, hope that's okay."

Axel quickly took the seat next to Roxas, forcing Zexion to sit down next to Demyx.

"It's no problem at all!" Roxas grinned like a cat, ignoring the death glare he was getting from his best friend. "Hi, I'm Roxas. And you are…?"

"Zexion," the quiet senior muttered.

"Nice to meet you. This is my friend Demyx," Roxas pointed him out with a smile.

"I know," the blue-haired teen said, but quickly recoiled, "I mean… I've seen him around…"

Axel smirked, "Yeah, probably at the library, huh?"

Both of the men blushed deeply, refusing to look at each other. Roxas noticed the looks of confusion coming from the other end of the table and leaned over to his twin. "Demy's like… in love with the guy. And I think Zexion is interested in him too."

"Ohhh," Sora whispered, nodding. He passed on the information to the triplets, who giggled a little.

"So Roxas, were you like… totally weirded out by finding your brother?" Xion broke the awkward silence, trying to make conversation.

He shrugged, nodding, "I mean, of course… Shit like this doesn't happen every day."

"Where are you from?" Namine asked him next.

"My family moved here from Twilight Town," Roxas answered her, watching Demyx and Zexion out of the corner of his eye. They were both staring at their trays silently, looking like either of them might implode at any time.

Namine brightened up, "Oh! I've been there before. It's such a cute little town."

"Yeah… I used to miss it…"

"Used to? You don't anymore?"

Axel stepped in, noticing the look on Roxas' face. "His girlfriend from there cheated on him with his best friend… he found out last week."

"Oh… I'm so sorry to hear that," Namine frowned, feeling bad for mentioning it.

Sora looked over at his brother, "Did she ever answer your texts?"

Roxas only shook his head, "Nah… Doesn't surprise me. She should know we're done."

"I hate people who cheat," Xion said, giving Riku a stern look. "They're total jerks."

Riku coughed and nodded, "Yeah… assholes."

As they had their little awkward moment, Axel kicked Demyx under the table. "Talk to him," he mouthed, pointing at Zexion. When all he received was a terrified stare from the blond, he turned to Zexion himself, "So… You really like reading, huh?"

"Uhm… yeah… it's really relaxing," Zexion mumbled, still refusing to look at Demyx.

"Did you know Dem is a musician? He's kind of amazing."

Zexion shook his head, "N…no… I didn't know that. What do you play?" he wondered, finally turning to the terrified teen.

"S…s…sitar…" he whispered, looking up at him. The moment their eyes met, Demyx felt his heart leap up into his throat. "It's like a guitar, sort of…"

"I'd love to hear you play sometime…" Zexion said, smiling just a little.

Demyx nodded quickly, "Y…yeah! I mean… I'd like that…"

Axel smiled as the two continued to converse quietly. Anybody with eyes could tell they were a perfect match.

"So. We need to figure out what to do for our birthdays, Nami!" Xion exclaimed, drawing the attention of the whole table. "I think we should have a party."

Kairi glanced up, a look of terror on her face.

"A party! Ooh, that'd be fun," Namine grinned, "Oh, but where? Mom said no more parties at our house…"

"Oh, I got drunk and broke the fish tank _one time,_" Xion rolled her eyes, huffing.

Namine thought for a moment, "We could go to the beach?"

Sora suddenly sat straight up, an amazing idea crossing his mind, "We could go to my house on the island! Dad and I kept it so we could still vacation there."

"Uhm… would your dad really let us have a big party at his house though?" Namine wondered, skeptical about it.

"Dad won't care. He's so glad that I have friends, he would never say no to that."

Xion squealed in delight, "Ooh, a party on a private beach! That sounds amazing!"

Kairi shifted uncomfortably in her chair as Sora turned to his brother, "You and your friends should come out too. We could make it a whole weekend!"

"Shouldn't you actually ask Dad first?" Roxas wondered, though he wasn't objecting to the invitation.

"I will, I will… but will you guys come?"

Axel nodded happily, "Of course! Can Zexion come too?"

That startled the senior boy, who looked up at them. "Huh?"

"We're having a party this weekend on the island for the triplet's birthdays. You're coming," Roxas told him, not making it an option.

"Oh… uh… I guess so. Sounds fun?" he offered, seeming a little thrown off. He wasn't really a party boy, but he could see it being interesting.

Sora smiled, "I'll text my dad now!"

_Sora: Hey Dad, I have a question._

_Cloud: Yeah?_

_Sora: Uhm… well, it's Kairi and her sister's birthdays this weekend and we were wondering if we could have a small get-together at the house on the island._

There was a long pause, and Sora could picture his dad thinking about it.

_Cloud: How many would be there?_

_Sora: Like… nine? _

_Cloud: Will there be drinking?_

_Sora: Not going to lie, Dad… Probably._

_Cloud: But you won't trash the house?_

_Sora: Of course not… You know I wouldn't do that._

_Cloud: I guess… It's better than you drinking somewhere you can actually get into a car and drive._

_Sora: Right? See, it'd be much safer. :P_

_Cloud: I'm only trusting you because I know I did a good job raising you. _

_Sora: Is that a yes?!_

_Cloud: …I suppose so… But be careful! _

_Sora: Always, Dad. Thanks!_

_Cloud: Don't make me regret trusting you, Sora._

_Sora: I would never! _

Sora looked up at his friends, smiling widely, "He said yes!"

"Just like that?" Namine asked, raising an eyebrow, "Is your dad like… braindead?"

"No! Look, you guys… you don't understand the relationship I have with my dad. We're best friends," Sora explained. "He doesn't even care if we drink, as long as we're safe."

Roxas looked shocked, "Wow… Dad's pretty awesome, huh?"

"He trusts me… and he trusts that I made good friends. Including you, Rox."

Namine pulled out her phone and suddenly screeched, leaping to her feet, "Yuffie is coming back tomorrow!"

Everyone at the table jumped out of their skin, and Xion received several confused glances as Namine jumped around in a circle.

"Her best friend… she's been out of town with her parents," Xion explained, rolling her eyes. "If you want my opinion, they're more than friends," she added in a whisper.

"Jeez, Namine too?" Roxas raised an eyebrow, seriously wondering how so many people at this school could be gay. Not that it was a bad thing, but the odds of so many of just their group of friends alone being gay were not that high. Yet somehow, he found himself surrounded by happily homosexual teenagers.

Riku chuckled, "Her and Yuffie are in the most massive denial the world has ever seen."

"I don't get it… I mean, are we the only straight guys in this place?" Sora wondered, looking at his brother.

"And Riku," Roxas shrugged, shaking his head in disbelief.

Riku grimaced, "Actually… I'm bisexual…"

"Oh for fuck's sake…" Sora laughed, absolutely floored by this.

"Birds of a feather flock together," Kairi sang a little ryhme, giggling softly. "It makes sense that they'd all be friends. They understand each other without judgement."

Sora wrapped an arm around her, chuckling lowly, "Actually… that makes a lot of sense, Kairi."

"Kai, you've been different lately," Xion said, eyeballing her sister carefully. She paused for a moment before chirping, "I like it! You're acting normal!"

"She _is_ normal, Xion…" Sora growled at her, squeezing Kairi before dropping his arm back into his lap. "Stop treating her like there's something wrong with her."

Xion just rolled her eyes, huffing, "Whatever. I'm just glad she's talking to people."

"Kairi seems fine to me," Axel said, oblivious to her disorder. "Besides, she's super smart. I have some classes with her."

Sora nodded, "Right? She's like… a genius!"

Roxas leaned over and whispered something to Axel, who then gasped in surprise. "She's autistic?"

Roxas face-palmed, nodding, "Yes, Axel… you incredibly sensitive idiot."

Namine sighed, "Actually… her therapist thinks she might be growing out of it."

"That can happen? I thought it was a permanent thing," Axel stated, looking confused.

Namine shrugged, "A lot of people don't think it can, but… she's doing so much better lately. She's hardly showing any symptoms anymore. He said that if she keeps heading in this direction, he'll no longer be able to diagnose her as autistic."

"Whoa… Kairi, that's amazing," Sora said, smiling at her.

"She's been working very hard with Mom and the therapist… but honestly it was when she met you that she started drastically improving," Namine said to Sora, wondering how that was even possible.

Sora looked down at Kairi, "Why's that?"

"I… I don't know…" she said, shrugging. "You really help me understand things."

"But… I didn't do anything, Kai," he laughed a little.

She locked her eyes on his, making his breath catch in his throat. "I guess I just like you then…"

"Ooh, Kairi! Way to go, girl!" Xion exclaimed, clapping at her sister's sudden bravery.

"Shut up…" Kairi mumbled, blushing deeply as she tore her eyes away from Sora's.

Sora just sat there trying to process that. Kairi liked him?

Suddenly the bell rang, startling all of them and signaling the end of lunch. "So… the party this weekend is on," Sora said, standing up, "We should plan stuff out tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Roxas said, turning to his friends. "Demyx… we gotta go," he told him, interupting what looked like a pretty deep side conversation with Zexion.

The blond musician jumped a little, "Oh… yeah… I'll see you later, Zexion."

"Looking forward to it," Zexion smiled, gathering his things.

The table was littered with half-eaten lunches. It seemed like everyone had been more interested in talking than eating, which was a good sign for their first lunch all together. If they kept this up, Sora could see them all becoming fast friends.

x-x-x-x-x

"So Demyx… what was that all about?" Roxas and Axel surrounded their friend, who was blushing madly as they walked to their next class.

"What?" he feigned ignorance.

Axel raised an eyebrow, "Uhm, you and Zexion chattered all through lunch! How'd it go?"

"Oh… it was fine. He's really nice."

Roxas stepped in front of Demyx, stopping him in his tracks, "Demyx! You gotta give us _something_."

"I… I… Oh God, I think I'm in love…" Demyx finally came out with it, sighing happily. "He's coming to see me play at the bookstore tonight…."

"Demyx! You didn't tell me you had a gig!" Roxas scolded him, whacking him on the arm.

Demyx just laughed, "Well… I don't know, I guess I didn't think about it… I play at the bookstore all the time. You guys can come if you want!"

"No, no… We'll let you have your moment with Zexion," Axel said, a smug smile on his face. "I knew he liked you…"

"What do you mean?" Demyx asked, his eyes wide.

Axel chuckled, "He's been into you for a long time… But he's always been too shy to say it."

"But… but… …really?" Demyx suddenly looked hopeful.

"Yeah, dipshit!"

Roxas watched his friends interact, happy to see them finally getting along. Axel was a really good guy, and Roxas was glad that he ignored Demy's original judgement of him. Just watching him smile, Roxas felt his heart beating a little faster. _Wait…_ Roxas thought to himself, _Why is this happening…? I haven't felt like this since… Olette…_

"Rox, you ready to go?" Demyx brought him out of his thoughts, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Y…yeah…" he sputtered, following them into the classroom. When he found his eyes again fixated on Axel, he shook his head and sighed. What was going on with him?

x-x-x-x-x

It was getting late, but Sora didn't want to take Kairi home yet. He really loved spending time with her, and she'd made math so much easier for him.

"Thanks again for the help, Kai…" he said, sitting down next to her on his bed.

"Of course, Sora… I hope you can turn your grade around," she said, smiling a little as she put her books away.

He caught himself staring at her, but didn't bother to stop. She was just… gorgeous. And on top of that, she was sweet and adorable and just easy to be around.

"Sora?" she squeaked softly, looking up into his eyes.

She always knew how to knock the breath out of him and make his heart leap in his chest. "Kairi… have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

This made her blush, causing Sora's heart to kick even more. "N…no… thank you…"

His hand somehow found itself resting on her cheek affectionately as he gazed into her eyes. "Ever since I saw you on the island, you've been the only thing I can think about…"

"Sora…" she whispered, her cheeks flushing a deep shade of red. He moved his hand to work his fingers through her hair, the pink-red locks even more soft than he'd imagined.

His face was mere inches from hers, and his gaze was unfaltering. "You make me feel like a complete person, Kairi… When I'm not with you, everything hurts…"

"What're you saying, Sora…?" she asked meekly, blinking up at him.

"I'm saying…" he trailed off as he swallowed his fear and leaned in, catching her lips in a soft, sweet kiss. As their lips met he felt his entire world change, his heart racing in his chest and his breath catching in his throat. When he pulled away, he was visibly trembling. "I… I'm sorry…"

Kairi was absolutely speechless for a moment, the look of pure shock on her face soon fading into a smile, "Sora… that was… really nice…"

That caught him off guard but put a huge smile on his face. "Wait… you aren't mad?"

"No, Sora! I… I really liked it…"

Nothing could take away his smile now. They may not have known each other long, but Sora was completely ready to ask his next question, "Kairi… would you go out with me?"

"Really…?" she stared up and him in disbelief. "Like…?"

"Like be my girlfriend, cutie," he chuckled, finding her innocence adorable.

She thought about it for a moment, "But Sora… are you sure? I mean… it hasn't been very long…"

"I know, Kairi, but… whether it's tomorrow, a month from now or next year, I'm still going to want you to be my girlfriend. Why wouldn't I just ask now?"

"I… I don't know how to be a girlfriend…" she mumbled nervously.

He couldn't help but laugh, pulling her into his arms. "Honestly, I don't know how to be a boyfriend. I've never really had the chance to date someone before…"

"So… we'll learn together?" she perked up a little, glad that she's not the only one with no experience in the field of relationships.

Sora smiled widely, kissing the top of her head, "We'll learn together. We can just take it slow and… see where we go."

"C…can we start with another kiss?" she asked timidly, her face hot and flustered.

He chuckled, "Of course…" he said as he leaned down to kiss her again. This kiss was an entirely different one than their first. It was hungry… there was a burning need behind it. His fingers tangled through her hair again as their kiss deepened, albeit a bit awkwardly.

Neither of them knew what they were doing, but their bodies had such a spark between them that they didn't really notice. Sora's tongue prodded against her lips, an action based entirely on instinct. She paused for a moment, squeaking a little, but eventually gave in and parted her lips, allowing him to take their kiss that much further.

"Sora, are you still up?" Cloud walked into their room, immediately halting when he saw the two of them. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry…" he mumbled, backing out of the room.

"Fuck… be right back…" Sora swore, pulling himself to his feet and heading into the hallway. "Dad… I… we were just…"

Cloud was laughing, "Oh Sora… I honestly never thought I'd walk in on anything like that…"

"It's not funny, Dad…" he grumbled, his cheeks tinted bright red.

"She's a very nice girl, Sora… I can see why you like her," Cloud became a little more serious, straightening up. "But… you need to take her home now. It's very late."

Sora nodded, "I know, Dad… did you need anything else?"

"I wanted to talk to you more about this party… set some ground rules. But I'll wait until you get back."

"Sounds good, Dad…" Sora said, returning to his room. "Kai… it's time to go home."

She pouted, whining softly, "I wish I could stay here with you…"

"I know, doll… but we have school tomorrow and my dad says it's time for me to take you home. Don't worry, we'll have the whole weekend together on the island."

As she packed up her bag, Kairi sighed, "I'm still not thrilled about the party…"

"We'll have fun, Kai… I promise," he said, grabbing his keys.

"Sora?"

He turned around and came face to face with Kairi, who was up on her toes to match his height. Before he knew what she was doing, her lips were on his again in another sweet little kiss. "Uhm… wow. I'm never going to get used to that," he said, chuckling a little.

"Me either… I just want to do it all the time…" she admitted, giggling softly.

"Well… try to hold off while I'm driving. I'll wreck the car."

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: Hello! Just wanted to touch base with you guys. I hope you're enjoying the story so far! I know it's been pretty tame, but shit is about to get insaneee. I mean, think about it. Ten teenagers on an island unsupervised? **

**I wasn't going to have Sora and Kairi get together so soon, but come on… how cute are they?! ;P**

**I love getting reviews, so keep reading and sharing your thoughts! **

**Love you all,**

**EtherealLove15**


	5. Happy Birthday

**Chapter Five**

_Happy Birthday_

_(To you, and you, and you.)_

"Sora… I'm really trusting you this weekend," Cloud told his son for the billionth time. "If you trash the house, so help me…"

"I get it, Dad," Sora laughed, taking the house keys from his father. "Oh, uhm… Don't you want to keep the key to the bar?"

One of Cloud's secret pleasures was his extensive bar in the basement of the beach house. He wasn't an alcoholic… rather, he had a fascination with collecting liquor bottles. "No… you take it. I… I want you to have a fun weekend."

Sora couldn't believe his father's trust in him. "Dad… really?"

"Do not tell _anybody_ that I'm condoning underage drinking. Seriously. But… I remember what it was like to be 17. Just don't go overboard," Cloud said, exhaling loudly. "I want to trust you… please, please don't break that trust."

"We'll be fine, Dad… I'll check in with you every few hours, promise."

A sudden knock at the front door startled both of them. It was Roxas, Axel and Demyx picking him up.

"That… that's Roxas," Sora said, "I forgot to mention he was picking me up…"

Cloud felt like the breath was knocked out of him, "Roxas… is on the other side of the door…?"

"Yeah, Dad… and if I don't answer it soon, he's going to wonder," Sora said, heading for the door. But then he paused, "Actually… why don't you answer it? I forgot one of my bags upstairs."

Before Cloud could object, Sora was dashing up the stairs. Taking a deep breath, Cloud approached the front door and swung it open, coming face to face with his son. "Roxas…"

The blond teen looked up, gasping softly as he locked eyes with his father. "Dad… Er, uhm… Mr. Strife. Is Sora ready?"

Before Roxas could say anything else, Cloud pulled him into a tight hug. "Please, you're more than welcome to call me Dad…"

"Rox, is Sora coming?" Axel approached them, but stopped in his tracks when he saw them. "Oh… Mr. Strife, Sora didn't mention that you would be home."

"He also didn't mention that you guys were picking him up…" Cloud laughed a little, letting go of Roxas. "Uh… I'm sorry about that. I just… ever since Sora told me about you, I've been dying to meet you."

Roxas nodded, "I… I've wanted to meet you as well."

"Ready!" Sora said as he came up behind his father. "Did you two get a chance to say hello?"

"Yes… we did…" Cloud trailed off, but then shook his head, "I guess you should get going…"

Sora stepped past him, his bag slung over his shoulder, "Roxas… you ready?"

"Uhm… yeah. Bye, Dad…" he mumbled, turning to head back to Axel's car.

"Hey, Roxas?" Cloud called, stopping the boy in his tracks. "Feel free to come by any time. And… be safe this weekend, please."

x-x-x-x-x

"Come on guys, it's just a little bit further," Sora said as he led the crowd through the jungle.

"Sora… we've been walking for like a half hour…" Namine complained, struggling to carry her bags and the massive amount of candy she'd bought for the party.

He was about to answer her when they came up into a clearing, stepping onto the private beach and coming upon the rather large house on the island.

"Shit, man… you didn't tell us you lived in a mansion…" Riku marveled, gaping at the huge home.

"I.. I guess I never really noticed how big it was," Sora said, the house looking big even to him.

Roxas laughed, "Wow… To think, I could have grown up here…"

"Well… everybody make yourselves at home," Sora told them, unlocking the front door. The group filed in, everybody looking around in awe of the large home. "Anyone with food, the kitchen is right through here to the right."

As soon as he was done talking, Kairi snuck up behind him and gave him a tight hug, "When are we going to tell everyone, Sora?"

He turned to face his girlfriend, placing a kiss on the tip of her cute nose. "As soon as everyone is together, promise. Now, let's go put our stuff in my room."

"We…we're going to share a room?" she squeaked, her eyes wide.

"Well… there's only five bedrooms, so everyone is going to have to pair up. I figured you'd be okay with it, but if you'd rather room with one of your sisters…"

She shook her head, "No, no… that's fine. Uhm… lead the way."

"Sounds good. Everybody listen up! There are five bedrooms, so pair yourselves off! Kairi and I are taking my room, the rest are all up for grabs."

The other teens all looked at each other, an awkward silence floating over them. Xion suddenly grabbed Riku, "Well obviously we're together."

Namine then hugged Yuffie, "We'll take one!"

That left Roxas and his friends. He was about to offer to room with Demyx when Axel spoke up, "I can stay with Roxas… Demy and Zexion will take the other room."

Demyx yelped a little, his eyes wide, "Wait, what?!"

"Is that a problem?" Axel challenged him with his eyes, smirking a little.

"N…no…" Demyx mumbled, blushing furiously.

Zexion's eyes were locked on the blond, giving him a bit of a devious look. It seemed as if the quiet ones were the most sexually charged. "I'm absolutely fine with that arrangement."

"Good, it's settled then!" Axel chirped, picking up his bags, "C'mon Rox, let's go find the best room."

"Get your bathing suits on, we wanna swim!" Riku called after them, pulling Xion towards one of the smaller rooms.

Sora suddenly stopped, "Wait! Axel, don't take my room!" he yelled, running up the stairs after them. Kairi skittered along after him, hardly able to keep up with his long legs.

x-x-x-x-x

"Whoo! Axel, come on in! The water feels absolutely amazing!" Roxas exclaimed, floating on his back in the crystal clear ocean.

Axel and Zexion were camped out on the beach under a big umbrella, neither of them looking like they wanted to swim. "Nah, it's okay… I'll just hang out with Zexion."

"Dude, don't even bother… neither of them have ever gone near the water," Demyx said as he surfaced near Roxas.

"Why not?!" Roxas wondered, loving the feeling of the water around him. "Oh, it's fantastic…"

The whole time he was swimming, Roxas could feel eyes on him. Axel was… very open with his affections.

"So… why does my cousin look like he's about to jump you?" a certain raven-haired girl asked as she popped up beside Roxas.

Yuffie was really cool, from what Roxas had seen of her. She seemed to be a pretty nice, though maybe a little crazy. "What're you talking about, Yuffie?"

"Uhm… Axel is staring holes into you. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"He just… does that. I don't know why."

She raised an eyebrow, snorting in disbelief, "Really? You have no idea why he might be watching you?"

"I mean… I guess he likes me, but…"

"But you just wanna be friends, huh? You're straight, right?" she asked, sighing.

Roxas nodded, "Yeah…"

"Coulda fooled me. I suppose I should have phrased my question differently."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Yuffie just giggled, "Roxas… you look like you want to jump him too. Like… bad…"

He gave her a look of confusion, "Whoa, Yuffie… That's not—"

"If you'd like some advice… I say go for it. You two would be an adorable couple."

"I'm not-!" he started as she dove under the water and swam away, "Gay…" he finished, sighing heavily. "Damn it…"

His eyes trained on Axel again, and for a brief moment they made eye contact. Roxas' stomach flipped and he turned around quickly, trying to breathe. He felt sick… he couldn't figure out why he kept feeling things like that around Axel.

Yuffie grinned at him from a few feet away, "Told ya," she mouthed to him smugly.

Roxas only groaned, letting himself sink under the water for a moment.

x-x-x-x-x

"Guys… we have something to tell you," Sora said, looking around the dinner table. After they had come in from swimming, the group cooked up a storm in the kitchen, making a wonderful birthday dinner for the girls.

Okay, so it'd mostly been Namine doing the cooking. But damn, could she cook.

"What's up, guys?" Roxas wondered, looking at his brother curiously.

Sora wrapped an arm around Kairi, smiling happily. "We are… dating now. Kairi is my girlfriend."

"Oh my God! That's fucking adorable!" Xion screeched, causing everybody to cringe.

"Wow, I'm happy for you guys," Roxas nodded in approval as everybody else agreed.

Kairi giggled and kissed Sora on the cheek, causing everyone to hoot and holler.

"Oh God… when are we gonna start drinking?" Sora joked, hugging Kairi happily.

Axel jumped to his feet, "I was actually wondering the same thing. When are we gonna check out the sweet bar you said was downstairs?"

Sora looked around, noting that everyone was pretty much done with their dinner. "I guess we can go now…" He pulled the key out of his pocket, walking over to unlock the basement door. "Just… please be respectful. This bar is my dad's pride. And even if we finish any of the liquor, we need to keep the bottles for him. He has a collection."

The group filed downstairs, and when Sora flipped the light on, the image before their eyes made them all gasp at once. "Whoa… this place is amazing," Axel mumbled, taking it all in.

The actual bar was in the corner, lined up to the ceiling with different bottles of booze. Some were empty, some were full, some inbetween. Cloud only wanted the bottles… it was a strange obsession for him.

The rest of the basement was just as amazing. There was a whole living area with three couches, a couple recliners and a huge flatscreen. There was an area with a pool table, and another area with a dart board. Cloud had literally build a mancave in the basement.

Axel was already all over the bar, pulling out glasses and mixers and pawing through the booze. "I can mix some epic drinks," he told the group, who were staring at him like he was insane.

They dispersed around the room, Sora and Namine taking one couch, while Xion sat on Riku's lap in a recliner. Demyx and Zexion awkwardly sat down on a couch together, staying miles apart, while Yuffie and Namine crammed themselves into the other recliner. Roxas lounged across the last couch, taking up both spots on the little loveseat-like piece of furniture.

It wasn't long before Axel was passing out some kind of deadly drink to everyone, and even less time passed before they were considerably inebriated.

x-x-x-x-x

"Shu up… I… I not… drunk…" Roxas slurred, swatting at Axel who had placed the little blond directly in his lap.

Axel let out a bark of laughter, "Oh, Roxy… you're smashed. Have you ever had alcohol before?"

"N…nuhuh—yes! I did once! Ha!" Roxas exclaimed, gulping down the last of his fifth drink. "'Nother," he said, slamming the glass down on the coffee table.

"Ohhh no, Roxy… you're going to make yourself sick," Axel tried to hush him, holding onto him to keep him from getting up.

"Lemme go!" the blond exclaimed, struggling a little. Demyx handed him a whiskey sour, sitting back down next to Zexion. "Ooh…" Roxas cooed, sipping at the drink, "Oh my God! It's like lemonade that you drink!"

The group burst out in laughter, none of them quite as wasted as Roxas yet.

"We need to do something fun! Ooh… I know! Truth or dare!" Roxas yelled, startling Axel a little as he wiggled around.

"Oh, Roxas… truth or dare is so…" Riku protested, but his screechy girlfriend cut him off.

"Truth or dare is so fun!" she squealed, nearly falling out of his lap. "Who wants to go first?"

Yuffie's hand shot up in the air, "I do! I do! Demyx… truth or dare?"

"Oh shit… dare… no, truth!" he changed his mind, pushing his hair out of his eyes. It was odd for them to see him without his traditional fauxhawk, but it had flattened down when they went swimming.

"How long have you been in love with Zexion?" Yuffie asked, smirking a little bit.

Zexion nearly jumped out of his skin at the question, turning to Demyx, "What?!"

Demyx tried to avoid looking at the other man, grabbing a pillow and covering his face. "Two and a half years…" he mumbled through the pillow, slinking off the couch and sitting on the ground.

"We can't hear you, Dem! Speak up! And remember, you can't lie!" Yuffie sang, grinning like a cat.

He growled a little, removing the pillow from his face and clutching it to his chest, "It's been, like… two and a half years…"

Zexion opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He just sat there, drink in hand, absolutely shocked.

"Demy, it's your turn! Who're you gonna pick?" Namine goaded, giggling a little.

"Fine. Namine, truth or dare?"

She thought about it for a long moment before stating, "Dare!"

"I dare you… to kiss your bestie," he said, giving Yuffie a smug look. "I can play dirty too, bitch."

Namine's eyes widened and she shook her head, "N…no, no… I can't do that…"

"Of course you can! You have to, it's a dare," Demyx pressed, waiting for it.

The little blonde snatched a drink off the table and downed it all, turning to straddle Yuffie as she took a deep breath and pressed her lips against the raven-haired girl. It was awkward and quick, but still left Namine a bit speechless.

"Nami, take your turn!" Xion kicked at her sister, knocking the girl out of her trance.

"Oh, yeah… uhm… Sora?"

The brunette held onto Kairi, "Truth is fine."

"Have you two slept together? We've been trying to figure it out all night," Namine said, laughing a little.

Kairi squeaked a little, "No!"

Sora nodded in agreement, "The lady is correct. We haven't done anything but kiss."

"Whoot! Xion, you owe me ten bucks!"

"Seriously? You guys had a bet going on my sex life?" Sora questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Roxas groaned, "Boring! Let's move on. Sora?"

"Oh, hell… Xion, you look like you're ready to implode. Truth or dare?"

She giggled, happy to be called on, "Truth!"

"Boring!" Roxas put in his two cents again.

"All right… what the hell has been going on with you and Riku?"

She shot him a deadly glare, but then sighed, "Okay… it had to come out sooner or later… Riku cheated on me. But… not until after I cheated on him…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… what?!" Namine screeched, absolutely floored by her confession.

"Why the fuck are you still together?!" Sora wondered loudly.

Xion shrugged, "We wanted to try to make it work… we weren't ready to give up on each other yet."

"Mind… blown…" Roxas mused, making the explosion symbol with his hands.

She shifted herself on Riku's lap, looking at Zexion, "Hmm… I pick you, quiet mystery guy. And remember, you don't get to puss out 'cause you're scared."

"Then I think I'll go with truth…" he said, very aware of where a dare would have gone.

"Ugh, you're no fun… All right, so out with it. How long have you been in love with Demy?"

Zexion stammered a little, "I… I… Oh, fuck… fine. I've been head over heels for Demyx since we were in middle school. I've always been too shy to say anything…"

Demyx looked up at him, eyes wide, "Wh…what? Middle school?"

"Did you really think I didn't know you were a musician? Demyx I've been to every one of your shows since you started playing gigs…" he admitted, sighing softly.

"Zexion…" he whispered, meeting his eyes, "I'm in love with you."

The blue-haired man smiled widely, "And… I'm in love with you, Dem…"

Demyx crawled up onto the couch, his eyes staying locked with Zexion's. "I need to—"

His words were cut off as Zexion pulled him into a heart-stopping kiss, one that left Demyx absolutely breathless. He was pulled into the man's arms immediately, snuggling into his warm chest.

"Ah, right… the game…" Zexion coughed a little, trying to regain his composure. "Hmm… Yuffie. Truth or dare?"

"Oh fuck off… I pick truth," she said, knowing he was about to get payback for her humiliating Demyx right away.

He thought for a moment, "Are you in love with Namine?"

"That is none of your God damned business!" she yelled, glaring at him.

"Oh? Because you thought it was your business if we were in love."

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "Yeah, okay? Whatever…"

Namine slipped off of Yuffie's lap, running from the room.

"Fuck…" Yuffie groaned, chasing after her. "Namine! Please come back!"

The petite blonde girl turned on her, looking seriously angry, "Yuffie, really?! We've been best friends since we were infants, and this is coming out now?!"

"Nami, I didn't… I was too afraid to tell you," Yuffie said, taking a step towards her. "I… I was terrified… You had so many boyfriends growing up…"

"Damn it Yuffie! I am so in love with you it hurts!" Namine screamed, breaking down into tears. "Do you know how long I've waited to know that you felt the same?"

In two seconds, Yuffie had closed the distance between them and had Namine locked in a passionate, long overdue kiss. When they broke the kiss, Namine clung to her best friend, sobbing uncontrollably. It was likely from the alcohol, but something couldn't get her to stop.

"Nami, shh… It's okay…" Yuffie comforted her, holding her close. "I'm sorry it took so long…"

"I was trying to fight it for so long…" she whispered, sniffling a little. "I dated all those guys because I wanted to prove that I wasn't… that I didn't…"

Yuffie laughed a little, "Honey, I understand… I did the same thing… I just never thought…"

"That I'd feel the same? Yeah…"

"Hey, can we continue our game?!" Roxas shouted from the couch, wriggling in Axel's lap as he tried to grab at another drink.

"Roxas, you're ruining all of the moments…" Axel told him, holding onto him tightly in an attempt to stop him.

The girls sat back down in their recliner, Namine settling into Yuffie's lap happily. "All right… Axel, my cousin! How about you?"

The redhead shot a stern look at her, hanging onto the squirming drunken teenager. "I… I'll choose dare…"

"Ooh… I think we all know what you need to do," she said, grinning evilly once again. "You've been eyeing your friend there all night… You need to kiss him. Get it out of your system."

Axel shook his head, "That's where I draw the line, Yuffie. I refuse."

"C'mon, Axe… it's a dare! You have to," his friends pushed him, all of them waiting.

In a small fit of rage, Axel tossed Roxas down onto the couch and straddled his hips, pinning the wiggling boy down as he leaned in and captured his lips in an exhilirating, sobering kiss. Roxas immediately came into his right mind, his eyes wide as Axel didn't let the kiss go. But he didn't fight it… in fact, he felt a soft moan escape his throat. Moments before, he had no idea what was happening… now, he was kissing a man and feeling incredibly turned on by it.

"All right, guys… I think that's enough," Yuffie had to cut them off after a couple minutes.

Axel lifted himself off of Roxas, panting heavily and looking like he was about to be sick. Roxas just laid there, trying to put all the pieces together in his mind.

"Jeez… is everyone here harboring a secret love for someone?" Sora joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Actually… I guess we were…"

"Not me and Riku! It was never a secret," Xion exclaimed, looking ready to pass out.

"I pick Kairi…" Axel mumbled, ready to continue the game and move on from his humiliation.

The little redhead squeaked, regressing into Sora's arms, "Sora… I don't wanna play…"

"It's okay… just pick truth. They'll go easy on you," Sora told her, smiling.

"Okay… truth…" she mumbled, terrified of what he could possibly ask her.

Axel smiled softly, "When you saw Sora for the first time… was it love at first sight? Do you believe in it?"

"Uhm… I… what are you asking?" she stammered, looking confused.

"Do you believe in love at first sight? Did you feel that with Sora?"

She thought for a long moment, then nodded. "Yes…"

"That's all. Your turn!" Axel said, grateful that somebody else believed.

"Uhm… can Sora take my turn please?" Kairi wondered, done with the game already.

Sora laughed, "Sure, cutie… we'll choose Roxas."

Roxas looked up, still in shock from that kiss. "Uhm… truth…"

"How much did you enjoy that kiss? Because you look like you're having a revelation over there," Sora chuckled.

"I… It was…" Roxas stammered, unable to find his words. "I… I actually really liked it…"

Axel shot a glance over to him, incredibly surprised by that. "You did? But… you're straight, Rox…"

"I… I'm not sure if I am…" Roxas whispered, surprising even himself.

Sora nodded, "Well damn… all right then. We're all… behind you, Rox."

"Yeah, we know all about people coming out!" Xion squawked, finishing another drink.

"Jesus, it's fucking contagious…" Roxas mumbled to himself, wondering how he could possibly have gotten himself into this. "Oh… Riku… your turn."

"Truth?" Riku offered, forgetting for a moment that they were playing a game.

Roxas thought for a moment, "Who did you have your affair with?"

x-x-x-x-x

"Roxas… I'd really like to talk about earlier…" Axel said, stripping his shirt off so he could change into his pajamas. Like it or not, the two of them were stuck in a room together.

"I'm tired…" Roxas mumbled, crawling under the covers and sighing.

Axel sat down on the edge of the bed, "No… we need to talk, Roxas. Now."

"I don't want to… Let's just go to sleep…"

Axel growled, crawling ontop of Roxas and grabbed his wrists, pinning him down to the bed. "We're talking. Now."

Roxas whimpered a little, "Okay… so talk."

"You need to help me understand, Rox… You said you liked kissing me, and then you said you might not be straight. What does that mean?"

He squirmed, "I… I don't know what it means…"

"Roxas… you know that I have feelings for you… I mean, there's no way you don't know by now… so…"

"So you're asking me if I have feelings for you? Axel, I don't fucking know!" Roxas exclaimed, struggling under him.

Axel stared down at him, trying so hard to find some clue as to what the blond was thinking. When he couldn't find anything, he growled, "Roxas…"

The small blond stared up at him with wide eyes, "Axel, I…" he trailed off, a thought running through his mind. In one quick movement he had captured Axel in a deep kiss. The redhead immediately let go of his wrists, allowing Roxas to grip him around the neck and pull him closer as they kissed.

Axel quickly took over dominance of the kiss, tangling his fingers through Roxas' hair as his tongue pushed to enter the boy's mouth. Roxas allowed it, playing his own tongue against Axel's skillfully. It was clear that both men had quite a bit of experience, and it only seemed to spur them on more.

Roxas couldn't hold back, moaning softly through their kiss. As the sweet little sound hit Axel's ears he groaned gently in reply. Moments later, Axel broke their kiss and stared down at him, panting softly. "Roxas…"

"Is your tongue pierced? How did I not notice that before?"

Axel couldn't help but laugh, "Yes, Roxas… Remind me to walk you through all my piercings later."

"…There're more?" Roxas raised an eyebrow, smirking a little. He could see the obvious ones… he had snakebites in his lower lip, and a bar in his right eyebrow. His ears were slightly gauged, but not to a disgusting extent, and he had an industrial on one side and about three cartilage piercings on the other side. He knew about the nipples… what else was there?

"Are you trying to keep me from questioning you about that kiss? Which, by the way, was amazing…"

Roxas blushed softly, "I… I don't know why I did that."

"Do you want to do it again?" Axel wondered, smiling a little.

"Very badly," Roxas admitted, flushing an even deeper red.

That was all Axel needed to hear.

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: So much development! ;P I hope everyone likes where this is going. Please remember to review, and let me know if you have any suggestions for potential scenes. I'll totally take requests into consideration. This story wasn't planned… it's just happening. **

**Who else is wondering about Riku's affair? ;P**


	6. Until Tomorrow

**Chapter Six**

_Until Tomorrow_

Axel sat straight up in bed, aware right away of the lack of presence next to him. His heart sank to the bottom of his gut and he stood up, checking the bathroom to find it empty as well. Roxas was nowhere to be found.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, wondering where he had gone wrong. He and Roxas had stayed up late talking, laughing, kissing… Roxas had fallen asleep snuggling into his chest in the most adorable of ways.

And now Axel was alone.

x-x-x-x-x

Roxas found himself wandering the halls of the silent home by himself, his heart pounding in his chest.

"How could you tell them that?" Roxas heard a hushed shout sound through the bedroom at the end of the hall.

"Xion, we were playing a game… we were drunk!"

The blond sat down outside of the door, eavesdropping. "You had no right to tell them about our personal life, Riku… Do you know how embarrassing that was?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it is to be around you all the fucking time?!" Riku countered, trying not to raise his voice and wake anybody.

"I'm _trying_, Riku! That's more than I can say for you! Do you think I haven't noticed how you look at him all the time?! He looks _exactly_ like him, Riku. Don't even try to lie and say you don't see it," she huffed, and Roxas could hear her sit down.

Riku groaned, "So _that's_ what this is about… You think I'm going to leave you again."

"Well?! Is that really such a far stretch?!"

"_You_ had the affair first!" he reminded her, his voice rising.

"And I felt _horrible_ about it, Riku… you have no idea. Vanitas meant absolutely nothing to me. You should know that by now!"

Roxas shifted a little, wondering if maybe it was time to stop listening.

"And Ventus meant _everything _to me," Riku bit out, sounding like he was about to start sobbing.

"Yeah, yeah Riku, just rub it in!" Xion exclaimed, clearly crying as well. "I tried so hard to be there when he left you…"

Riku growled, "You know damn well I never wanted to take you back."

"So break up with me, Riku! Leave me!" Xion cried. Roxas heard a loud thud, causing him to jump a little.

"Oh, so you can bitch and moan all day every day at school about how I broke your fucking heart? Sounds like a fucking awesome time."

"You're being mean, Riku…"

He laughed sarcastically, "Oh? I'm mean? Xion, you abuse your autistic sister. You butt into other people's business all the fucking time when you should just shut the fuck up. Hell, your voice is enough to make me want to shoot myself."

"So just leave me…" she mumbled through her tears, barely understandable anymore. "Leave me and go pine after …_him_."

"For the millionth time, Xion, I am completely aware that it is _never_ going to happen with him. For me to even consider it is …it's just completely outrageous."

"Oh? They're not dating. You could be a totally shitty person and steal him right out from under the poor guy."

"They're my _friends_ you self-righteous bitch. I would never destroy a potential relationship."

Xion let out a sharp laugh, "Oh that is fucking hilarious… You were willing to destroy our relationship over that little bitch Ventus!"

"And you were willing to throw away our relationship for one night with your little fuck-toy Vanitas!"

"And then you fucked his brother."

"And then I _fell in love _with his brother. I wasn't just using him for sex."

"But he was using you," she said smugly, and Roxas could hear her stand back up. He was thoroughly confused by everything he was hearing… and who was he talking about out of his friends?

"We're done, Xion. Get out," Riku said, his words short and bitter.

"And go where, exactly? We're kind of stranded on an island, you moron!"

"I'm staying here with _my _friends, whom you've made perfectly clear that you hate."

Roxas jumped a little. Xion hated them?

"They're fucking weird, Riku… You've got to admit that. There was a reason we never hung out with Demyx before."

"Yeah, because _you're_ a bitch! Now get the fuck out of here."

There was a pause with some rustling, and suddenly the door flew open and Xion ran out of the room, her bag slung over her shoulder. In only moments, Roxas heard the front door slam.

He pulled himself to his feet and battled with the decision of whether he wanted to run back to his room or talk to Riku. As he heard Riku quietly sobbing, he knew what he needed to do.

"…Riku?" he whispered, knocking on the frame of the door as he entered the room.

Riku jumped a little, looking up at him, "Roxas… I, uhm… I'm sorry if we woke you…"

"I…I heard everything, Riku… I was in the hallway and I heard you fighting and… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"It's okay… close the door, come sit down. I don't want to wake anyone else."

Roxas shut the door and took a seat next to Riku on the bed, sighing softly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I… honestly, I'm just glad to be done with her… that was a long time coming."

"I still don't understand… Why were you with her if you were in love with this other guy?"

Riku sighed, ready to tell his story. "So… Last year Xion and I became friends with these brothers from the next town over… They were friends of my cousin, Aqua. We hung out with them over the summer quite a bit, and I could feel myself falling for Ventus. I knew I was bisexual already, but I'd never been with anybody but Xion. Of course, I controlled myself because I was with her… And then one night during a party in the city, I caught her in bed with Vanitas."

"Oh shit…" Roxas whispered, then apologized for being insenstive, "Uh… sorry… go on."

"I was not as heartbroken as I was angry. I was giving her everything to try and save our relationship and… she was willing to throw everything away without a care. Before she knew that I caught her, I opened up to Ventus and we ended up sleeping together… more than once. I thought that it meant something to him, but… as soon as school started again he dropped me like a ton of bricks. He refused to see me or even speak with me. I was absolutely devastated…"

Roxas felt his own heart breaking at the story. "So… when did Xion find out about Ventus?"

"When he stopped contacting me I broke down and told her everything… I told her about falling in love with Ventus… finding her with Vanitas, the whole affair behind her back, everything… We didn't know what to do. We had both cheated, but she swore up and down that the had no feelings for Vanitas. Because Ventus basically rejected me… Xion and I decided to give it another try. We haven't seen either of them since, but our relationship has never been the same."

"I get it… You'd been together for so long that you couldn't just let your relationship go because of a summer mistake," Roxas nodded, starting to understand.

Riku sighed heavily, "I… I was stuck…"

"I… I need to ask you about one more thing…" Roxas said, a little nervous to know the answer. "Xion mentioned a friend that you… that you like…"

"It doesn't matter who it is, Roxas…"

He shifted a little, "But… I don't understand. He looks like Ventus?"

"Very similar… but that isn't why I like him. His kindness is unfaltering, and he understands true heartbreak. He's… he's everything I wanted Ventus to be, and nothing that he actually was."

"It sounds like you were projecting your ideal relationship onto Ventus… blindly hoping that he would somehow turn out to be the right guy," Roxas said, unsure where the sudden romantic advice was coming from. "You must have been very unhappy with Xion…"

Riku nodded, "I… I was lacking everything that a real relationship needed. I guess I got… confused…"

"You should let your friend know how you feel… I mean, feelings like that shouldn't go unresolved. At the very least, he can give you closure."

"Roxas, I'm not sure if that's the best idea…" he mumbled, blushing and looking down.

The blond turned to him, meeting his oddly teal-colored eyes. "You'll feel so much better if you have closure, Riku… And who knows? Maybe this guy has feelings for you too. Can't hurt to try, right?"

"Roxas, what were you doing wandering the halls in the middle of the night?" Riku asked suddenly, keeping his eyes on the other teen.

"I panicked… everything with Axel is so confusing right now… and completely overwhelming."

Riku nodded, "I… I understand how that feels. But… I mean, do you think you could be gay?"

"If anything, I'd be bisexual… but I'm still confused. I'm not sure if I'm just getting caught up with the way Axel treats me. I mean, he's a good guy… but I'm not sure if I have real feelings for him or not."

That was all Riku needed to hear to make his next move. He cupped a hand behind Roxas' head, pulling the boy into a soft, tentative kiss. He expected Roxas to shove him away, to freak out and run off… but he allowed Riku to hold the kiss for a moment before pulling away.

"Riku… you were talking about me…" Roxas came to the realization, his cheeks flushing a deep red. "I… I am flattered, but… I'm already confused enough as it is. I don't think I can…"

"Stop," Riku cut him off, sighing heavily, "I know… I just wanted to do that once."

Roxas stood up, smiling at his friend, "Riku… you must see why I would be skeptical about this… You yourself said that I look just like Ventus, and… it seems like you're still pretty hurt by his rejection. Are you sure you actually have feelings for me? Or were you hoping I would fill the void he left?"

"I will… take some time to figure that out. In the meantime, can we stay friends?" Riku asked, though the teen's incredible understanding of the matter was only making Riku like him more.

"Of course… but don't tell anyone about this. I… I think I need to see where things go with Axel," Roxas said, making his way to the door. "Wait… didn't I shut this?"

Riku looked up, noticing that the door was cracked partially open. "Uhm… maybe the wind blew it open?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it…" Roxas said, nodding. "Good night, Riku. Try to get some sleep. I do hope you can figure things out."

"Thank you Roxas… so, so much."

x-x-x-x-x

"Axel… I've been looking everywhere for you. What're you doing down here? …Are you drinking again?" Roxas stepped through the darkness of the basement, finding Axel sitting in one of the recliners clutching a glass of scotch with a beam on moonlight illuminating his face.

"Leave me alone, Roxas…" he growled, his hands visibly shaking.

Roxas took another step towards him, turning on a table lamp so he could see him better. Axel was or had been crying… he could tell that much. "What happened…? I thought you were asleep."

"Do you know how long it's been since I had feelings for anybody?" the question was short and his voice tinged with anger.

"I… I'm not sure…"

"I was always so afraid to let someone in… but I thought… I thought I could trust you… Damn was I wrong…"

Roxas shifted uncomfortably on his feet, "I… I don't understand, Axel…"

"I saw you kiss Riku."

The blond let out a sigh, "Axel, he kissed me! And… it was just because he was confused."

"I didn't see you stop him," Axel pointed out, the words making him cringe.

"He… he caught me off guard… Axel, I don't have feelings for him or anything. You know that, right?"

The redhead narrowed his eyes on the boy, "I know. But I heard a lot of your conversation before that. Why would you kiss me like that if you don't know what you feel for me?"

"Axel, you can't blame me for being confused… My whole life I've thought I was straight…"

"You were leading me on, Roxas… do you know how hurt and confused I felt when I woke up and you were gone?" Axel asked, a single tear running down his cheek.

Roxas looked down at the ground, "I… I shouldn't have just left like that… But Axel, I was scared. I mean, one kiss and my whole life seems like it's in question."

"It doesn't have to be…" Axel whispered, "Roxas… I've always lived around the idea that true love doesn't identify to one gender or the other. I could have just as easily fallen for a woman, but my heart drew me towards you. I only call myself gay because I haven't experienced feelings like this for a woman before, but… do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You're saying… the heart wants what it wants," Roxas finally understood. "If I have feelings for you, I shouldn't let my questionable sexuality stop me from exploring them."

Axel looked up at him, hope in his eyes, "Do you have feelings for me?"

Roxas nodded, tears springing to his eyes. "I… I do… Really strong ones."

"C'mere…" he set his drink down and held out his arms, goading Roxas to sit in his lap. The little blond complied, snuggling right up against him. "I know you're scared, Rox… and I don't blame you…"

"I don't want to hurt you, Axel… I mean… what if it turns out I _am _actually straight?"

Axel smirked a little, "If you were straight, you wouldn't have been able to stomach kissing me like that… I mean, no offense to straight guys but they generally aren't that open."

"You do have a point," Roxas admitted, feeling immediately comfortable in Axel's arms. "I… I have no idea how to date a man though…"

"Lucky for you, I have experience in that. Besides, it's really not that much different," he smiled, his heart racing again. "Are you… saying that you'll give this a chance?"

Roxas swallowed heavily, nodding, "I'm saying I'll try… But can we not be… 'exclusive' for awhile? It's not that I wanna date other people or anything, but I think it'll be easier on me if we keep labels out of it until I can get adjusted."

"That's fine… for now, we're just… Axel and Roxas. That's all."

x-x-x-x-x

As Axel and Roxas were resolving their drama, Demyx and Zexion were trying to process the information they'd received earlier that night. The pair sat in their bedroom anxiously, neither one of them looking at the other.

"So…" Demyx broke the silence, unable to handle it any longer. "Does this mean… are we dating now?"

Zexion jumped a little, "I… I think so… right?"

"Well… we're in love with each other, so generally that's what happens…"

"Right… so… yes, I guess… we're dating."

Demyx squirmed a little, "I… I've never been in love before…"

"Me either… I mean, it's always been you…"

"Why? Why me?" Demyx questioned, finally turning to look at Zexion.

The blue-haired teen shrugged, "You're adorable… you're silly and sweet, and your music is gorgeous… You have the biggest, kindest heart I've ever seen, and the way you carry yourself shows people that you don't care what they think of you. It's… it's really brave. I wish I could be that way."

"Oh, Zexion… Ever since I first saw you at the library I was smitten… You know, I saw you read to that little girl once… her mom was ignoring her, so you stepped in and it made her so happy… that was one of the first times I realized what I was feeling for you. Even though you're shy, you're just… a good person. I've never seen you turn anyone away when they asked you for help. Axel was telling me he would have failed chemistry if you hadn't helped him last year…" Demyx trailed off, chuckling for a moment before adding, "Plus, you're kind of incredibly handsome."

Zexion laughed, smiling widely at him, "Demy… I've never been this happy before."

"Me either…"

The two of them met eyes, and Zexion leaned in to steal a kiss. "God, it feels good to finally kiss you…"

"I think I have to agree with that."

x-x-x-x-x

"Namine, you have to hear me out… I didn't think it was that big of a deal!"

The slim blonde turned on Yuffie, giving her an incredulous look, "You slept with a guy less than a week ago, and you didn't think I'd care?"

"But… we weren't together when it happened! Nami, I didn't even know you had feelings for me until tonight!" Yuffie defended herself, sniffling a little.

"If you loved me then like you claimed you did, you never would have had sex with some stranger," Namine glared at her.

Yuffie stepped towards her, "Nami, that's why I wanted to tell you… I wanted to be totally honest! I… I wanted us to start with a clean slate!"

"I can't even look at you, Yuffie… I'm going to go sleep on one of the couches…" Namine mumbled, grabbing a blanket off the bed. "Don't follow me."

As the door shut, Yuffie sat down on the bed in complete disbelief. She thought that if she shared everything about her past it couldn't come back to bite her, but… she was wrong. A harmless fling while she was out of town had destroyed a relationship 17 years in the making.

x-x-x-x-x

Sora and Kairi could hear constant chattering and slamming doors from the other rooms as they laid in bed trying to sleep. After a half hour of tossing and turning, Sora sat up and turned his bedside lamp on. "Kai… I can't sleep like this."

She stretched a little, looking exhausted, "I know… should we say something to them?"

"No… it sounds like they're resolving some issues… we need to let them hash it out," he said with a sigh. "We could watch a movie or something if you want? Maybe that'll put us to sleep…"

"A movie would be nice…" she agreed, scooting her pillows up to support her back.

He grabbed one of the random Blurays laying around his room and popped it in the player, not even caring what movie it was as long as it would drown out their bickering. Once it was playing, he crawled back into bed and pulled her into his arms to cuddle her.

"Sora…" she mumbled into his chest, clinging onto him as if he was just going to up and float away.

"I'm here, Kai…" he whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

She looked up at him, seeming worried about something. "We aren't going to fight like that, are we? I mean, is that normal for people to do?"

"I guess… the way I've always seen it, people in relationships are meant to bicker occasionally, yeah… I mean, put any two people in the same place for long enough and they're going to disagree on _something_ sooner or later. But it doesn't have to be to that extent…" he said, hearing another door slam. "I don't see us fighting like that."

"Oh good…" she sighed in relief, still not fully grasping how relationships worked. "I don't like fighting… not at all."

Sora chuckled, "That's something we have in common, then."

She caught his eyes for a moment, smiling just a little before she leaned up and pressed her lips against his. She would never get tired of doing that.

He couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was. Shifting, he positioned himself more on top of her so that he could take control of the kiss. She didn't seem to mind; she even scooted down so that she was laying beneath him comfortably.

Sora took a moment to pull back from the kiss and take in the breaktaking beauty laying beneath him. "Kairi… you're so gorgeous."

She just blushed, which made him want to kiss her again. Though… he didn't want to stop at a kiss either. She was making his hormones run wild, and he was quickly growing more heated. His lips crashed down on hers in a hungry, passionate kiss that pulled a soft moan from each of their throats.

He played his tongue against hers much more skillfully now than the first time they'd tried. His hands ran through her hair, down her flushed cheeks, under her chin… until his fingers began to toy at the straps of her tanktop.

"Sora," she inhaled sharply, her ocean-blue eyes wide as saucers.

"I… I'm sorry…" he mumbled, immediately backing off of her and sitting up on his knees. "I shouldn't have…"

Kairi wasn't sure what drove her to do it, but she slowly reached down to the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, tossing it to the side. She never wore a bra to bed, which left her small, yet still stunning breasts uncovered for Sora to see.

He took in a sharp breath, his heart nearly stopping in his chest. "Kairi…" he whispered as his eyes began to memorize every curve of her body. Her soft pink nipples were already hard and perky, and it took everything he had to resist touching her. "I… are you sure?"

She was only listening to her body, and this was what it desired. "Touch me, Sora…" her voice was like an angel's whisper.

Reaching to pull his own t-shirt off, he leaned back down and captured her in another kiss, his hands quickly moving to her chest. His fingers fumbled over her nipples awkwardly, though he used her soft moans to learn quickly what he was doing right and wrong.

As his hips brushed down against hers, both of them quickly became aware of how aroused he was. Kairi gasped softly, meeting his eyes again. "D… did I do that?"

"You and your stunning body, yes…" Sora gave her a sly smile, a playful look in his eyes.

She blushed again, and he could tell she was faltering a little over what to do next.

"We can stop…" he assured her, meeting her eyes with a comforting glance. "We should stop…"

"Why?" she was truly inquisitive. "It… it feels really good…"

Sora stared down at her, speechless for a moment. "Kairi… do you realize what a big step that would be for us?"

"N…no…" she fumbled for words.

"It's… it's life changing, Kai…"

She tilted her head curiously, "So change my life."

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: This chapter is a little bit short, but I fit in everything I wanted to perfectly. I know, I know… a lot of cliffhangers and unresolved fights. But I'm super excited to move forward in the next chapter to the second day of their weekend on the beach. If day one was this chaotic, whatever could day two be like? ;D**

**Also, if you didn't get the implication… Sora and Kairi totally banged. I was going to include a huge sex scene but… my inspiration wasn't in it this chapter. I hit that line at the end and it felt like the only place I could stop. Don't worry, it won't always just be a tease like that. I didn't rate this bitch M for nothing. ;P**

**Please for the love of God let me know what you guys think. It becomes daunting to update if I'm not getting some decent feedback. I love you all!**

**-EtherealLove15**


	7. Breaching Reality

**Chapter Seven**

_Breaching Reality_

"Namine… can I please sit here?" the group watched Yuffie struggle to gain her attention.

"There's a seat at the other end of the table," Namine replied coldly, not even bothering to look up at her.

It was as if they could all hear Yuffie's heart breaking. "Oh… okay…"

Axel patted on the seat next to him, "C'mon… you can sit down here with me and Rox."

"So… how did everyone sleep?" Sora asked, beaming brightly even with the tension in the room.

He was met with blank stares.

"Where's Xion anyways?" Demyx chimed in, seeming equally as happy though still a bit awkward next to Zexion.

"She left last night… caught the late night ferry," Riku said flatly, staring at his breakfast. "We broke up…"

There seemed to be a general sigh of relief through the table. "Finally!" Namine exclaimed, looking over at him. "I mean, I love my sister but… everything about you two was just wrong."

"Damn, don't hold anything back…" he chuckled a little. "You're right, though. We were awful together, and I'm better off."

"Maybe she'll finally accept that offer to go to that hoity toity fashion school across the country," Namine mentioned, collecting everyone's attention. "Yeah, Xion wants to be a designer. I'm kind of surprised you guys didn't know… she loves talking about herself."

Riku picked up on the story for her, "Right before school started this year… she found out that she got a scholarship to some fancy boarding school to study fashion. But… she never accepted it because of me. Which of course made me feel wonderful. I told her time and time again to take it… but she seemed really worried about leaving. Now… maybe she'll take it."

"I wish I could send all of my exes away like that," Axel snickered, causing everyone else to laugh.

"My ex… God, that sounds good…" Riku leaned back in his chair, crossing his hands behind his head. "Except now I have to start over, and I haven't had to court someone since kindergarten…"

None of them could stifle their laughter. "Okay, first of all… court?" Namine snorted, "And second… Xion told me you like someone anyways. Is it true?"

Roxas looked up, meeting Riku's eyes and shaking his head just a little.

"Uh… no. She was being her normal lying bitch self," Riku denied it, shrugging.

"Ooh, you liar… tell me!" she pushed, still paying no mind to Yuffie.

Riku just laughed, "Can't tell you what's not true, Nami."

"Ughhh, you suck!" she exclaimed, giggling.

"So… I'm going to say it, because nobody else will…" Axel started, looking over at Yuffie who seemed to be near tears. "What the hell happened last night? I mean… I thought you two were all good."

Namine grimaced, "Care to tell them, Yuffie?"

"N…no…" she whimpered, looking down at her hardly touched breakfast.

"Guys, maybe we shouldn't—" Roxas tried to intervene, but Nami cut him off.

"Oh no, please do, Yuffie. Tell them how you slept with a stranger on your trip. Tell them how you didn't even know his name. Tell them how you were supposedly in love with me the whole time. Lets just enlighten everyone."

The room fell silent… nobody wanted to speak or even move.

Yuffie burst into tears, obviously incredibly embarrassed. "Namine, you had no right to say that…" she said, standing up and running off. Moments later they heard the front door slam.

"Shit…" Axel mumbled, taking off after her. Roxas followed close behind.

Namine just sighed, "You can all go too. I'm just the bitch that ruined breakfast."

"Nami… are you sure you aren't being too hard on her? I mean… you weren't even dating when it happened. You kind of never were dating…" Sora mentioned, trying not to sound as awkward as he felt.

She just scoffed, "If she really loved me… she could never do something like that. Dating or not. It just proves that she doesn't feel that way…"

"Enough," a small voice growled, surprising everyone. "Namine, you're being an idiot. You love Yuffie, and she loves you… Do you know how many nights she would stay up just watching you when we were kids? I do. Yuffie has always loved you… she's just been struggling to figure everything out."

Everybody just stared at Kairi, who wasn't exactly prone to outbursts like that.

"I… I need to go apologize," Namine realized, heading out to find Yuffie.

x-x-x-x-x

"Zexion, please come in the water!" Demyx called from the crystal clear ocean, pouting a little. When he received no reply, he stormed out of the water onto the beach, standing over Zexion dripping wet. "You're coming swimming now."

"I'm not, actually. I don't like the ocean," he held his ground, flipping to the next page in his book. "Go have fun, I'll be fine here."

Demyx huffed, tapping his foot in the sand, "I'm not going to have fun without you there… Please?"

"I would really rather not," he said, glancing up over his book.

"But… why?" Demyx wondered, sitting down next to him.

Zexion sighed, setting his book aside and rubbing his temples, "It's stupid…"

"Apparently not, if it's keeping you out of the water," Demyx said, reaching over and grabbing his hands. "Just… tell me."

It took Zexion a minute to finally start, "So… when I was a kid my mom would take me to the beach with her all the time… but she never really paid much attention to me because she had to work. I would swim for hours while she sold sea salt ice cream… I even found this little cove off the main beach. I'd go there to be by myself, to think… but one day I was in the cove when a huge wave hit… it flooded the entire cove out, sucking me into the ocean and keeping me underwater. My leg got wrapped into something, maybe a chain or some seaweed, but… I fought as long as I could before I passed out. I thought I was dead… It was the single most terrifying experience of my life. But then suddenly I was waking up on the beach, coughing up water… some little blond kid had saved my life. I wanted to thank him, but… he ran off before I could even see his face. Since then, I've just been terrified to get into the water."

Suddenly Demyx burst out laughing, causing Zexion to blush deeply, "Shut up! I'm serious!"

"N…no… you don't… you don't understand… Zexion… that was me! I'd been swimming out near that cove when the wave hit… but unlike yours, my mother told me never to go in those things… I saw you go under, and when you didn't come back up I had to save you. Once I dragged you onto the beach I had to give you CPR, and… I ran off because I thought you'd think I was kissing you or something…" Demyx told him, eternally grateful that his parents made him learn CPR at a pretty young age. He spent all of his time in the water, but they were always very cautious with him.

Zexion just stared at him with wide eyes, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You… you saved me…"

"Well I wasn't going to let you drown, silly," Demyx laughed, squeezing his hands. "I can't believe I never figured out that it was you… I mean, we started middle school together just a couple years after that…"

"Demyx… can we go swimming?" Zexion asked him, still seeming a little nervous, "I… think I'd feel better knowing you were out there too, and I kind of miss the water…"

Standing up, Demyx pulled him to his feet and smiled, "C'mon… lets go cool off."

As he was guided to the water, Zexion felt his heart pounding in his chest. "W…wait…" he mumbled as they came down to the edge of the ocean, "I don't know if I can do this…"

But his fears melted away as he felt Demy's arms snake around him from behind. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you… I promise."

"Okay…" he whispered, stepping forward into the water. He only waded out to about waist high before stopping and turning to Demyx. "The water feels amazing…"

"I couldn't imagine going so many years without it…" Demyx said, floating on his back and kicking around a little.

Zexion joined him, allowing himself to lean back into the water and let himself float. "Demy… thank you so much… I mean, you literally saved my life."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Zexy."

x-x-x-x-x

Roxas watched Demyx as he helped Zexion into the water, a bit of jealousy touching him. Axel still sat on the beach, refusing to come swim with him. He was bored… and a little glad that he wasn't the one that grew up on the island.

"You suck, you know," Roxas said as he laid down on a towel next to Axel.

"Excuse me?" the redhead raised an eyebrow.

Roxas just laughed, "You still won't tell me why you won't come in the ocean…"

"Because you'll ridicule me for days!" Axel defended himself, swatting at the blond.

"Even Zexion went in! Come on… what could really be that bad about the water?"

Axel grumbled, "The fish…"

Roxas chuckled a little, "What?!"

"I'm afraid of fish, okay?! I hate them… so wiggly and slimy and disgusting… I can't even eat fish," he admitted, blushing deeply.

Roxas sat there, absolutely dumbfounded, "H…how…? Axel, you live almost on top of the ocean… how are you afraid of fish? Do you mean like… sharks and eels? Or all fish?"

"All fish… They just creep me out…" he stared down at the sand, seeming highly embarrassed. "You think I'm stupid, right?"

"I just… I guess I'm surprised to hear that you're afraid of anything in general," he shrugged, trying not to laugh anymore. "You have such a tough outer shell… I guess I still need to figure out what's inside of it."

"Thanks for not laughing… much, at least. I… I don't really ever tell people that about myself," he smiled up at Roxas, feeling a little bit of relief.

Roxas shrugged again, standing up, "Wanna go play volleyball? I don't think the fish have learned to crawl on land yet."

"I used to have nightmares that they could float through the air," Axel laughed, standing up and grabbing their volleyball. "Surprisingly, I never had any where they could crawl."

Roxas watched Axel as he started to set up the volleyball net, a little confused. Axel always seemed so calm and collected… but he had this side with all these fears and nightmares. Roxas knew that everyone had their own set of fears, but… fish? It was hilarious in an adorable way.

"Rox, you gonna play?" Axel was suddenly waving his hand in front of Roxas' face, startling the teen. "You totally spaced out, dude."

"Yeah, let's play…" he grinned, his heart feeling light and airy in his chest. Something about Axel just kept Roxas wanting to know more.

x-x-x-x-x

"Riku! That almost killed you!" the white-haired boy was brought out of his daydream as he was nearly whacked with a volleyball. "Dude… is your head in the game or not?"

"Uh… not really, sorry…" he apologized to Sora, "I think I'm going to take a walk."

Sora shrugged, "Sure, there's a path that leads through the little jungly area out back. You okay?"

"Just… thinking about Xion. I'll be back later," he said, bidding farewell to the group who had decided to start a huge volleyball tournament.

He hadn't really been thinking about her, but watching Axel and Roxas together was hitting him a little hard. He knew he needed to give up any ideas of winning over the blond, but something inside him still wished that he had a chance.

Riku isn't sure how long he's been walking with his eyes glued on the ground, but everything comes crashing back to reality when he hits what could very well have been a brick wall. "Fuck… did I walk into a tree?" he grumbled, finding himself sitting in the dirt.

"Not exactly," a deep voice sounded over him, startling him thoroughly.

"Shit… sorry…" Riku struggled to stand up. The moment he put weight on his right ankle, he yelped in pain, "Fuck!"

He was about to end up on his ass again, but suddenly a pair of strong hands gripped his wrists and pulled him to his feet easily. "Did you fuck up your ankle?"

"Apparently…" he mumbled, bringing his eyes up to look at the person he'd run into. "Oh…" he exhaled, surprised to find a rather handsome brunette man.

"My bad… I wasn't watching where I was going," he apologized, smiling down at Riku while continuing to help him stand up.

Riku just laughed a little, "I think it's my fault too… I didn't know anyone else was out here."

"I didn't either… were you from that party on the private beach back there?"

"Yeah… how did you know about the party?" Riku wondered, tilting his head to the side.

The older looking man just laughed, "I stumbled across the beach last night and all I heard was drunken yelling and people fighting. Do you need help getting back?"

Riku nodded, and the two started slowly making their way back to Sora's. "I'm Riku, by the way… I'm really sorry about this."

"I'm Terra," the other guy smiled, "And it's no problem. I was just kind of wandering aimlessly anyways."

There was a bit of an awkward silence before Riku spoke up again, "So… do you go to school here?"

"The University? Yeah, I'm in my second year now. You?"

"Oh… I… I'm in high school, actually… I'm a junior," Riku was embarrassed now, and he felt like a child next to this guy.

Terra laughed, "It's okay, Riku… you don't have to be all flustered."

Riku snorted a little. If only he could calm himself down… but Terra was drop dead gorgeous, had a heart stopping smile and seemed to have an amazing personality. "S…sorry…" he apologized, staring at the ground as they walked.

Suddenly Terra came to a complete stop, jerking Riku back on his feet a little and staring down into his eyes, "Stop apologizing."

"Sor… okay," Riku corrected himself, nodding. Terra's deep blue eyes were absolutely mesmerizing.

As Terra's arms snaked back around Riku, he started chattering. "So… how much longer do you have on the island?"

"Just through tomorrow… it's a long weekend, some kind of teacher's day thing."

"Perfect, you can hang out with me then," the brunette smiled down at Riku, "I don't have class tomorrow either."

Riku shook his head a little, "Excuse me?"

"What? Scared? I'm on the island with my friends from school… we should hang out tomorrow."

"Why… would you want to hang out with a high schooler?" Riku asked in complete disbelief.

Terra shrugged casually, "I dunno… you seem worth it."

"But… you hardly know me. I mean… don't you think it's going to be weird to introduce me to your friends?"

He just shrugged again, "They won't care. They trust my judgement."

Riku still couldn't wrap his mind around it. "I… I guess we could do that… But how will I find you tomorrow?"

"How about… you meet me by that old treehouse on your friend's property early in the morning. We'll get out before they even know you're missing."

"All right…" Riku agreed, "I just… I still don't get it. I'm just some dumb kid that needs to learn how to watch where I'm going."

Terra chuckled, "Yeah, but you're cute…"

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: As with the original story, Baby Doll, this chapter has come out rather short… but I feel like I did everything I wanted to for now. There'll be a big Yuffie/Nami chapter coming, and some more development with Sora and Kairi. I know you're all wondering how their night together went… ;P Thanks for reading guys! Sorry for the long time between updates! **


	8. Sexually Charged

**Chapter Eight**

_Sexually Charged_

"I'm sorry about last night, Kairi…" Sora mumbled, changing into his pajamas for bed. It was their last night on the island together and he couldn't stop thinking about how awkwardly terrible their first attempt at sex had been. He had always imagined it going just perfectly… but he was sorely mistaken.

"You don't have to keep apologizing, Sora…" her voice was soft, filled with embarrassment.

He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, groaning, "I do though… that was all my fault. I was just so nervous I… I couldn't…"

"I know," she cut him off, leaning against his shoulder, "I understand… But… I wanna try again."

Sora looked down at her, completely shocked by that, "Kairi, are you sure…? I couldn't even …keep it up…"

"Well… it can only get better then. I mean, could it really be worse than last night?" she pointed out, looking back up at him with her big blue eyes.

"Ouch… damn, Kairi…" he chuckled a little bit, getting nervous all over again. "I mean… you're right, I suppose… but… what if that happens again?"

She shrugged, "Then we'll try again tomorrow."

Sora stared into her again for a long moment, wondering how he could have possibly gotten so lucky as to find someone so perfect for him. "But, Kai…"

"Sora, stop… I had fun last night, despite how weird things got. I want to try again. Just… try for me. Please?" she begged, her eyes sparkling in the dim light from his bedside table.

"I…" he started to object again, but then gave up, "Okay, Kairi. We can try again."

She smiled, blushing softly as she realized how awkward it was to just command sex like that. "Uhm… so..."

Sora decided to just go for it, wrapping her up in a deep kiss. If they were going to try again… he was going to make it memorable. He gently nudged her onto her back, his hips straddling hers as their kiss grew more intense, more passionate. If anything, they'd finally figured out kissing properly.

She seemed to be spurred on by his not-so-subtle blatancy, squirming a little bit underneath him as he moved to kiss her neck and tease at her ear with his teeth gently.

"S…Sora…" she moaned softly, her body on fire. He was so good at foreplay… a little rushed, a little clumsy… but he did get her heart racing and her senses pulsing.

"God, Kairi… you're so gorgeous…" he mumbled as he paused to lift her shirt over her head. Much like last night, she wasn't wearing a bra and her perfect little breasts were exposed to the cool night air once more. His mouth moved flawlessly down her neck to her chest, finding one of her perky nipples and wrapping around it—something he hadn't tried yet.

Kairi let out a loud moan, her hips bucking up against his as a wave of unimaginable pleasure shot through her body. As he began to suck and play at her nipple with his tongue, she couldn't keep herself still. Her whole body just moved and squirmed under him, her moaning loud enough to surely be heard down the hall.

As he shifted his weight to move his mouth to her other nipple, his intensely hard cock brushed against her thigh and caused him to whimper softly in pleasure.

In her absolute bliss, she found her hand reaching down to softly grip at his erection through his pajama pants. She hadn't touched him there the night before, so this made him nearly jump out of his skin, "Fuck, Kairi…" She was getting even more adventurous with her hands-rubbing at him, squeezing, stroking… it was driving him mad.

But it was almost too much for him… and he wanted to last as long as he could for her tonight. He grabbed her hands with his, moving them to her sides so that he could slip her cute little pink shorts down off of her body. He had to take a moment to just look down at her… her body was so perfect and beautiful.

He wasn't nearly as nervous as the night before, though the fear that it might happen again was still lurking in the back of his mind.

"Sora?" she whispered, her eyes meeting his as he tore his gaze from her body.

He pulled his shirt off, smiling down at her, "Sorry, babe… you just look so absolutely perfect."

Kairi yanked him down into another deep kiss, using the moment of his surprise to flip her weight on him and roll the two of them so that he was on his back and she was straddling him right over his hips. "Ooh… I like this…" she mumbled, getting just a little drunk on the power of having him beneath her.

"Yeah?" he chuckled softly, his eyes suddenly drawn down to her chest. If she hadn't been so much shorter than him her breasts would've been hanging right in his face. "I'm rather fond of it myself…"

Smirking a little, Kairi moved down inbetween his legs and started to slide off his pajama pants, shifting them down bit by bit until he could kick them off. When he was finally naked, she moved back between his legs and wrapped her right hand around his thick length, starting to stroke him.

"Kai…" he gasped softly, a little nervous that he wouldn't be able to last very long with all this buildup.

A little known secret about Kairi was her love of those crappy, sappy romance novels that women in their 40s used to masturbate to… So while she seemed innocent and sweet, she actually had a pretty decent understanding of what sex was supposed to be like, and what men liked. Reading all of it made her truly curious about what it was actually like… which is why she had no qualms squirming herself down onto her belly between his legs and very gently wrapping her mouth around his cock.

Sora nearly had a heart attack, jumping out of his skin as she began to suck softly. "Holy shit, Kairi… what are you doing?!"

She didn't take the time to answer him, wanting to explore more of her curiousities. They were so charged with sexual energy that she knew that even if he came now, it was likely they could still try to have sex that night. At the moment, she was only interested in finding out what made him twitch.

"Kai… I can't…" he groaned, his hips writhing under her. She was starting to bob her head a little as she sucked, running her tongue down his length at the same time. "Fuck…"

She was drooling more than she thought she would… and she was surprised by the …taste. It was much sweeter than she thought it would be, and definitely wasn't bad by any means. A bit to her surprise, she was actually having quite a bit of fun hearing him moan and watching him squirm out of the corner of her eye.

"Kairi!" he yelped all of a sudden, scaring the shit out of her as she felt her mouth suddenly flood with a warm, thick liquid. She squeaked and pulled her mouth off, but it backfired on her quickly as the same fluid spurted up into her face and hair. She closed her eyes tight, her hand still gripping his cock as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. She knew he would cum, but… she thought she'd have some warning or something.

Coughing a little as she wiped the cum out of her eyes, she couldn't help but giggle, "So that was interesting…"

Sora was breathing heavily, but he had to chuckle a bit as he looked up at her, "Oh my God, Kairi… I'm sorry…" he laughed, grabbing the box of tissues from his bedside table and handing them to her.

"That was kinda my fault," she admitted as she wiped her face clean, "I shouldn't have pulled my mouth away like that…"

"D… did you swallow that…?" his voice was shaking a little.

She shrugged, "I guess I did."

"Wow… But… Kairi, I thought you wanted to… to try…"

Grinning a little, she lifted herself up and sat back on her knees, "The night isn't over yet."

His strength already returning, he sat up and grabbed her, flipping her onto her back and pinning her down with a hard kiss. "You're right… now it's your turn…"

"Ooh…" she cooed softly, leaning up to kiss him again as his hand snaked down to rub her gently between the legs. He'd started to play around with her the night before and he certainly wanted to do more.

"You need to talk to me, okay…? Let me know if I'm doing something wrong…" he whispered, slipping a finger between the lips of her pussy to find such a rich, incredible wetness. "Oh, doll…"

A blush tinted her cheeks and she giggled, "It might not be quite as obvious from the outside… but you have a pretty strong effect on me as well."

"You are just full of surprises, baby…" he chuckled, sliding one of his fingers into her warm little pussy and causing her to gasp sharply. He started pumping it in and out of her slowly, meeting her lips in another slow, passionate kiss.

Kairi couldn't stop herself from squirming about on the bed, her little hands gripping at the comforter beneath them as he started to build up speed. As he moved, his thumb brushed against her clit, an area he knew very little about, nearly causing her to jump through the roof, "Sora!"

"Wh…what'd I do…?" he stopped moving, looking at her with a bit of concern.

"T…touch me there again…" she stammered, her chest heaving as she tried to keep breathing steadily.

Finding the little nub with his fingers again, he started to gently rub at it. "Like this…?" he wondered, looking up at her as she squirmed and moaned in delight.

"Y..yes!" she cried out, her little hips bucking up off the bed. Just watching her move like that was making Sora hard all over again, his primal urge to just fuck her into the bed growing much stronger.

He toyed at it, rubbing and teasing and trying to figure out her sweet spots… her sticky sweet wetness coating his fingers and making it easy for him to touch her without unwanted friction.

"Sora… S… Sora, I want you to… can we…?" she stumbled for words, but he knew exactly what she wanted.

"A…are you sure? I mean… we… we can wait…" he pulled his hand away from her, repositioning his hips on top of hers.

She stared up directly into his eyes, "I'm sure, Sora… Please…"

"But… but what if…?"

Kairi grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down close, "Stop thinking about it and just fuck me."

x-x-x-x-x

"You totally cheated at that volleyball game…" Roxas grumbled, flopping backwards onto their bed as he and Axel tried to wind down for the day.

Axel rolled his eyes, "You don't even know the rules for volleyball, dork."

"I know enough to know that you cheated," he pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Jerk…"

"You're just mad cause you had to do all the dishes by yourself," Axel chuckled, laying down on his stomach next to Roxas, crossing his own arms and laying his upper body on the blond's so he could look at him.

Roxas huffed, turning his head away from Axel, "I still smell like dish soap… these guys seriously know how to make a mess."

"Oh… quit whining and give me a kiss," Axel chuckled, trying to turn Roxas' head back towards his.

"No," he replied stubbornly, keeping his head turned away.

Axel lifted himself over the small boy, straddling him and trying to get him to look up. "C'mon Rox… I'm sorry I cheated. Just kiss me…"

"No!" Roxas bit out, jerking away form Axel every time he touched him.

Growling in anger, Axel slid off the bed and crossed the room. "I'll be back… bathroom…" he mumbled, flinging the door open and slamming it behind him.

Roxas laid there for a few moments in his irritation, then hopped up to his feet and started to strip out of his sandy, dishwater stained clothes. He was down to his boxers when Axel slipped back into the room, scaring the crap out of him. "Jesus, Axe! Try knocking next time!"

"Oh shut up, you're cute in your little plaid boxers," Axel chuckled, looking over the boy. "Can I have my kiss now?"

"No," Roxas said, still in a pissy mood.

Axel closed the distance between them, "C'mon… you'll feel better if we just kiss and make up now."

"Give it up, Axel… I'm going to bed," Roxas moved to step away from Axel, but the redhead wasn't having it.

This sudden feeling of absolute… anger and frustration took over Axel, who had up until that point just been trying to reconcile with his almost-boyfriend. He shoved Roxas back against the wall, immediately pinning the boy by throwing all of his weight against his body and gripping him by the throat, "Wanna change your answer?" he grit out, his face barely an inch from Roxas'.

Roxas could barely nod in reply, absolutely amazed by his body's reaction to this treatment. "Y…yeah…"

"Good, kiss me," Axel commanded him, loosening his grip on his neck only slightly.

Roxas wanted so desperately to be pissed off, to refuse him and just run right out the door… but instead he found himself actually leaning forward and pressing his lips against Axel's.

Spurred on by Roxas' immediate willingness to obey him, Axel deepened the timid little kiss further. By the time he pulled away, it was clear that he had a certain dominance over Roxas.

"Axel—"

"Shut up," he growled, a bit curious to see how far he could take it. The boy immediately closed his mouth, looking up at Axel with a submissive glaze over his eyes almost as if he was waiting for his next instruction. "Go get in bed."

The moment Axel released Roxas from his grip, the boy was silently crawling into bed. Axel pulled his shirt and jeans off, leaving himself in his boxers as well before he laid down next to the small blond. Roxas turned on his side to face him, his ocean-blue eyes wide.

"Why are you just listening to me? Normally you would have thrown a fit and walked out," Axel asked him, though he had a pretty good idea of why already.

"I… I don't know…" Roxas blinked a few times, truly curious himself.

Axel chuckled a little, "I thought for sure you'd freak out when I grabbed you like that…"

"I… kind of liked it, I guess…" he admitted, blushing softly.

"Rox, you melted like butter… I've never seen you give up a fight so fast…"

The blond groaned and pulled the blankets up over his head, "This is embarrassing… Can we just go to bed?"

"Talk to me, Roxas… I mean… I felt… we had this crazy connection going, didn't we?" Axel pulled the blankets back, trying to meet his eyes.

"Yeah…" he had to agree, nodding a little, "We definitely did…"

x-x-x-x-x

"You publicly humiliated me, Namine… things aren't just going to suddenly be okay between us," Yuffie sat down on one of the couches in the basement. "I… I'm going to sleep down here tonight. We'll talk more tomorrow."

"I don't want to talk tomorrow… I want to talk now," Namine sat down next to her, refusing to give up now. "I… I'm so sorry… I just couldn't see what everyone else could. But… I'm here now. I want to make this work."

Yuffie shrugged, "Now I kind of don't… I just never thought you could be capable of something like that, Nami…"

"Exactly! You know that's not me! I… I was hurt and confused and…"

"And you decided to share my personal life with all of our friends. Most of whom I still barely know! You think I'm proud that I had a stupid one night stand with some asshole whose name I didn't even bother to get?! I didn't want anyone to know, but I confided in you and you… you ruined everything. Please… just go upstairs and go to bed. I don't think I can forgive you right now."

Namine stood up, sighing softly, "All right… but I'm not giving up… We're meant to be together. I can feel it in my heart."

x-x-x-x-x

"Hey," Demyx stepped out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. "Uhm… did you bring any shampoo or anything…? There's nothing in here. Not even soap."

Zexion felt his breath hitch up in his throat as his eyes trailed over Demyx's body. Sure, he'd seen him in a bathing suit… he'd seen him half naked… but something about that precariously low riding towel made his heart race in his chest. "I… uhm… yeah, in my bag…"

"Awesome… thanks man!" Demyx exclaimed, leaning down to rifle through Zexion's bag. When he stood up he accidentally let go of the towel, which fell down around his feet.

"Uhm… Dem…" Zexion couldn't tear his eyes away from Demyx's naked body.

The blond didn't even seem to notice. "Ooh… Ocean Mist scent. That's my favorite."

"Demyx…" he repeated from his place on their bed.

"Is this sulfate free? I'm allergic to sulfates…" Demyx continued to ramble on cluelessly.

Zexion groaned a little, getting uncomfortably hard under his jeans. "Demyx!" he shouted, "You're fucking naked!"

The flighty musician looked down, shrugging, "So?"

"So… I can see you?" Zexion looked up at him curiously.

"Again… why does that matter?" Demyx chuckled a little, crossing his arms over his chest. "What're you, nervous?"

Zexion shifted uncomfortably, "N…no…"

"Then what?"

"Nothing… just go take your shower…" he mumbled, blushing softly.

But Demy wasn't about to let it go. "Hmm… nope, tell me," he grinned like a cat as he approached the bed and crawled ontop of his boyfriend.

"Wh…what're you doing?" he sputtered, watching the naked teen straddle his lap.

"Getting' comfortable till you tell me what's got you all flustery," he replied cheekily.

Zexion groaned again, squirming beneath him. "Demyx… you need to get off of me…"

"Why?" Demyx chirped, incredibly aware of how aroused Zexion was.

"I… I just need you to move…"

"Why?"

Zexion whimpered loudly, "God damn it, Dem! Get off!"

"Jeez, Zexy… calm down. It's just an erection," he said casually, rolling onto his back beside him.

"Shut up…" the blue-haired teen grumbled, pulling the covers up over himself.

Demyx turned onto his side, staring at him curiously, "Are you a virgin?"

The blatant question threw him off, but Zexion nodded a little, "Aren't you…?"

"Uhm… no…" Demyx mumbled, "I… I've slept with Axel…"

"Wait a minute, repeat that?" Zexion turned to face him with a stern look. "You slept with Axel?!"

Demyx shrugged casually, "I thought you knew! Sorry."

"Holy shit… I had no idea… you and Axel? Really? I thought you were terrified of him up until you started hanging out with Roxas…"

"It was a long time ago… before the tattoos and piercings," he explained, "We never really dated or anything… just fucked around occasionally."

"Wow… I…" Zexion stammered for words, "That… makes me incredibly nervous…"

Demyx furrowed his brow, "Why? It shouldn't…"

"Because… because he's Axel! He's known for being amazing at sex… How could I possibly ever live up to that?!"

"Zexion… Axel is Axel… but you, you're the guy I'm in love with. That already makes everything ten million times better," Demyx chuckled softly, leaning forward to kiss him softly. "Besides… we should wait. Go on some dates first."

"Oh thank God…" Zexion breathed a sigh of relief, "Yes… we should definitely wait awhile. But… can you please go take your shower now? Or put on clothes at least? You're sort of irresistable…"

Demyx laughed, hopping up off the bed and heading back to the bathroom, "Love you, Zexy… even if you're shy and flustery."

"Love you too, Dem-Dem… but seriously, get your naked ass out of here before I jump you."

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: So I'm super pissed it took me this long to update… but I just started a new job and it's been absolutely insane. Anyways… I hope you guys like this chapter! I definitely had fun writing it. ;P**

**Little preview of the next chapter… there'll be some definite Riku lovin'. :3 Thanks for reading! Until the next update, goodbye!**

**-EtherealLove15**


	9. Tres Amor

**Chapter Nine**

_Tres Amor_

Stretching a little, Riku leaned against the large tree supporting an old treehouse. It was early… but Terra was nowhere to be found.

"Dude, you coming up here or what?" the sudden voice above him scared the shit out of Riku. He craned his neck upwards, spotting Terra up in the treehouse.

"Jesus, man… you scared me!"

He just shrugged, "So? Get up here!"

"I thought we were going to hang out with your friends!" Riku called, wondering what could possibly be up there.

"Dude, seriously? I'm not asking again…"

Riku sighed and looked at the rickety rope ladder, "Can this hold me?"

"I got up here, didn't I? Is your ankle better?"

Nodding, he started to climb up, "Yeah… I iced it for most of the night and it's fine now." When he got to the top of the ladder, he heaved himself up over the edge. "So why am I—" he stopped mid-sentence, looking around at the space before him.

Terra had set up a blanket with what looked like a full picnic set up on it. He even had a bunch of candles illuminating the little treehouse.

"Did… did you do all this?" Riku asked him, looking up at Terra with wide eyes.

"No, the breakfast sprite did," Terra rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Yeah! I figured since we got up so early it'd be nice."

Riku chuckled a little, "Wow… well, thanks…"

"What's wrong?" Terra wondered, starting to serve them both plates.

"Nothing at all, I'm just… I'm not used to someone doing something this nice for me. My ex was super demanding of me, and I got pretty much nothing in return."

Terra frowned, "Well that's shitty… Didn't he ever do anything nice for you?"

"She, actually… and no, she didn't," Riku shrugged, "I got used to it though."

"Oh, so you're… bi?" he wondered, handing him a plate. He thought for sure that Riku was gay.

Riku nodded, "Yeah, I guess so…"

"Cool, me too. Sorry, I didn't mean to assume… you just struck me as gay," he apologized, knowing how much he hated when people assumed he was straight.

"Eh, it's no problem… not a lot of people know anyways. I was kind of with this girl for a long time…"

Terra completely understood, "Got trapped, eh?"

"A little!" Riku laughed, taking a bite of what looked like an egg casserole type dish. "Oh my God, this is delicious! Did you cook this?!"

"Actually… I stole it from my friend Shiki. She's the best cook…" he admitted, smiling.

Riku shook his head, "Nice… Will I get to meet her today?"

"If you don't, she's going to murder me… I think she might have a bigger crush on you than I do."

"Whoa, what?" Riku stared at him, "What do you mean? I haven't even met her!"

Terra held up his cellphone, "I creeped a picture yesterday…"

"Well damn," Riku chuckled, "I almost forgot this feeling…"

"What feeling…?"

Looking down at his plate, Riku blushed softly, "That feeling you get when you really like someone…"

"Hey… can I just…?" Terra trailed off as he leaned across the picnic blanket and nervously pressed his lips against Riku's. He held the kiss for a long moment before pulling back just slightly and sighing, "Oh… wow… S…sorry… I just really wanted to do that…"

It took Riku a moment to return back to reality, but when he did a sheepish grin pulled across his mouth. "It's okay… I really liked it…"

Terra chuckled softly, "Good… 'cause I kind of want to do it again…"

x-x-x-x-x

"Demyx… can I talk to you for a second?"

Demyx looked up from his guitar with a shrug, "Sure, what's up?"

Roxas glanced around at all of their friends, who were mulling about the beach doing their own thing. "Uhm… inside? Alone?"

"Oh… well, yeah. Is everything okay?" the musician stood up, setting his guitar aside and following Roxas into the house.

"I'm freaking out, Dem… and I wanted to talk to you because I know… you and Axel…"

Demyx nodded, cutting him off, "Yeah, we did. I mean, you aren't going there already are you?"

"Did Axel ever… grab you? Like… around your neck?" his voice was timid and shaky.

The taller blond raised an eyebrow, "His whole 'pin you against the wall by your throat' thing? Yeah, he tried to pull that shit with me… I about broke his arm."

"Oh… so you yelled at him?" Roxas squeaked, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

"Well yeah… but that's just because I have a dominant personality too. I don't like being challenged… at all."

He really wasn't following and he was nervous to let Demyx know. "Dominant…?"

"Oh jeez, Rox… you're just like I was when I first met him… The thing about Axel is, he's gonna suck the innocence right out of your soul. Look… how did you react when he grabbed you?"

Roxas looked down at his feet and blushed, "I wanted to be mad, but… I just did everything he said… It was really exciting…"

"All right, so… you're submissive. Roll with that," Demyx shrugged again, turning to leave.

"Wait, Demyx! I… I don't know what that means…"

He laughed a little, "Just… follow your instincts. If you really are submissive, Axel will love it—guaranteed. Also, he loves a little bit of fight sometimes, so don't always just do what he says. Chances are, you'll love the struggle too."

"O…okay…" Roxas blushed deeply, feeling really silly for even bringing it up. "Thanks Dem… I'll… try that…"

x-x-x-x-x

"It's not much further… are you sure your ankle is all better?" Terra asked again, holding a branch aside so Riku could pass.

"Yeah, I'm sure! What I'm not sure about it whether or not you actually have friends out here, or if you've just been walking us in circles to try and kill me!" Riku joked, chuckling a little.

Terra had been about to open his mouth when suddenly a flash of yellow sprung out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground, "Terra! I missed you!"

"Shiki! I've only been gone a couple hours!" he laughed, wrapping her up in a hug and giving her a kiss.

Riku almost didn't even notice the kiss, but when his brain processed it his eyes widened, "Uhm… Okay…"

The oddly thin girl looked up at him curiously, "What?"

"Nothing, I just… I thought…" he trailed off, almost wanting to cry.

Terra sat up with Shiki still sitting in his lap, "Riku, this is Shiki. My… girlfriend."

"I… I'm going to go back to Sora's…" Riku mumbled, turning to leave.

"Whoa whoa whoa, why?!" Terra exclaimed, standing up quickly and dumping Shiki on her butt.

Riku raised an eyebrow, "Obviously this isn't what I thought it was… I'm not getting caught up in some sick game again."

"You're totally misunderstanding, Riku… Shiki and I have an open relationship. We don't cheat on each other."

"That… doesn't make me feel any better. I can't believe I thought… ugh… nevermind…" Riku growled, turning back down the path towards Sora's house.

Terra ran after him, stepping infront of him and blocking him from leaving. "Riku just… come hang out with us. I really like you, and I know she will too…"

"There's something seriously wrong with you, Terra… and I won't be a part of it. Now move or I'm going to make you," Riku glared up at him, finding it hard to believe he could have been so stupid again.

"Okay, I get it… maybe I should have told you about Shiki before I kissed you… But do you honestly believe we didn't have something?"

Riku crossed his arms, tapping his foot as he waited for Terra to move. "Anything we had is gone, along with any chance you had of making this work."

Suddenly Shiki was in front of him as well, "Give him a chance… I've never seen him so smitten with someone since… well, me!"

"That realllllly isn't helping," Riku told her, "And it's incredibly weird and creepy that you're trying to hook your boyfriend up with another guy."

"I'd rather share him than lose him entirely…" she mumbled, looking up at Terra.

Riku shook his head, "Do you not hear how pathetic that is?"

"Come hang out with us! Let us prove you wrong. If you still hate me by the end of the day… I'll leave you alone," Terra begged him, not ready to let go of his feelings.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this… but fine. If it'll get you out of my life for good, I'll hang out with you guys today."

x-x-x-x-x

"Roxas… are you avoiding me?" Axel finally found the blond up in their bedroom reading an article on his phone.

"No, I just got really hot outside… thought I'd sit in the air conditioning for awhile," he said, setting his phone aside.

Axel came into the room, closing the door behind him. "I saw you come in here with Demyx earlier… is everything okay? I mean, Rox… if I scared you last night you gotta let me know."

"You didn't scare me in the way you thought… What scared me was that I liked it so much," he admitted, hugging his knees up to his chest.

That made Axel smile, and he sat down next to Roxas. "Really…? Wait, is that why you were talking to Demyx? Because you know we…?"

"Well… yeah… I just needed some stuff explained…"

"You know you can talk to me, right Roxy?" Axel looked worried all of a sudden, "I could have answered your questions…"

Roxas chuckled, "Well yeah, but I was already embarrassed enough! Besides… I've been answering my own questions via the good ole internet."

"And…? What did you find out?"

"That… it's not that uncommon to like stuff like that. And that I should explore it rather than try to ignore it."

Axel grinned, "Good… 'cause I can't really control when that happens."

"Well apparently I trigger it when I'm a total brat," Roxas joked, laughing and leaning against him. "Which is… rather often, actually."

"You do like your tantrums…" Axel agreed, "But it's okay. I like moody Roxy. He makes life interesting."

Roxas looked up at him, feeling a lot better than he did before. "You do know I'm not going to do _everything _you ask, right?"

"We'll see," Axel said simply, "Now… gimme a kiss."

Completely forgetting his earlier statement, Roxas immediately leaned in and kissed the smug redhead.

"So… you _aren't_ doing everything I say? Funny… Come here," Axel smirked a little, patting on his lap.

Roxas nearly gave in again, moving to straddle himself on Axel's lap. But he stopped himself, shaking his head, "No!" he exclaimed defiantly, sitting back on his knees and crossing his arms over his chest.

Axel raised an eyebrow, meeting the blond's eyes with his own piercing green pair. "Are you sure you want to tell me no?"

"Y…yes…" Roxas' voice wavered a bit.

"You know that means I'm just going to make you come here, right?" Axel's eyes never left his.

Roxas furrowed his brow, "No you're not! You can't make me do anything!"

"I'm going to give you a moment to rethink that," Axel crossed his own arms, giving him a stern look.

"I'm not doing it, Axe. There's no way you have that much control over me," Roxas tried to deny it, still in a certain amount of disbelief about all of it.

It took Axel maybe ten seconds to grab Roxas, flip him onto his back and pin him down to the bed hard. It was quite obvious that he had experience in this, something that both intrigued and worried Roxas. "I might not …yet. But I have the strength to make you do it anyways."

Breathing hard, Roxas stared up at the man positioned over him with wide eyes. He couldn't move a muscle… Axel was much stronger than he looked. "I… I'm sorry…"

"Damn right you are," Axel growled, gripping Roxas by the hair as he leaned down and snatched him into an intense kiss.

x-x-x-x-x

"Where is everyone, Shiki?" Terra wondered as they finally came across their hangout.

"Oh… Rhyme got sick so Beat and Neku took her back to the Mainlands. Larxene and Marly left last night to… do whatever it is that they do when they're alone. Do they fuck? Cause I just can't picture that…" Shiki rambled, skipping up to a fire pit with a bunch of lawn chairs around it and taking a seat. "Light it up, Terra! I'm chilly."

"Shiki… it's gotta be eighty degrees out. How are you cold?" Riku wondered, sitting down next to her.

Terra just shrugged and pulled a long lighter out of the cupholder of one of the chairs, lighting up the fire pit before taking a seat on the other side of Riku. "So… I thought everyone would be here, obviously."

"Yeah, 'cause that would have been much less awkward," Riku said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Stop being so close minded… This is just what an open relationship is. He sees other guys, I see other guys… I mean, this is the first time we've both been attracted to the same one…" Shiki trailed off, looking Riku up and down.

The white-haired teen just laughed, "Close minded? You people are insane. You're seriously saying you're both attracted to me? Some random high schooler you found on an island? I don't buy it… Are you scamming me or something? Pulling a prank?"

"It's not a game, Riku… When I ran into you… I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," Terra tried to explain, wishing he could find a way to make him understand. "When I showed Shiki that picture… she was just as smitten. We just want to get to know you better…"

"So start by telling me about yourselves. You're in college, right?"

Shiki nodded, turning sideways in her chair and letting her long orangey-red hair hang over the armrest. "Yepp! I'm a fashion major."

"And I'm majoring in high-school level education. I want to be a math teacher," Terra added. "Do you know what you want to major in?"

"I don't even know if I want to go to college, honestly…" Riku shrugged, watching Shiki toss around an odd black cat plushie. "But if I did, I'd have to say computer science."

Shiki peeked over at him, "Why wouldn't you wanna go to college?"

He sighed, "I just… I want to see the world first. Go on some adventures. I feel so cooped up in this place."

"Seriously? Shiki and I are planning a backpacking trip for next summer! Three months to see anywhere we can get to before school starts again," Terra seemed excited.

"Cool," Riku said calmly, not looking Terra in the eye.

Shiki tossed a small rock at him, pouting, "Stop being mean! We're just trying to talk to you."

"Oh awesome. You throw things too. Perfect," Riku grumbled, "So… what else do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your ex. That black-haired girl who bitched through our spot the night before last on her way to the ferry growling about you," Shiki looked up at him, startling him with her knowledge of Xion.

Riku swallowed heavily, "I… you met Xion…?"

"That… was another thing I was kind of hiding," Terra admitted, "She nearly punched Marluxia in the face because he asked if she was okay that night."

"Riku… what happened that night…?"

He looked back and forth from Shiki to Terra, wondering if he really should open up to them. "We… we had a lot of issues. We cheated on each other and it destroyed everything…"

Terra scooted his chair closer, placing a hand over Riku's in an attempt to comfort him. "You know Shiki and I aren't like that… this isn't cheating to us. You get that… right?"

"I just find it hard to believe that you both could let the person you care about just… be with another person, no problem."

"I know it's weird, Riku… but we really do love each other. I have faith that Terra will always come home to me no matter what, and he knows the same. But now… I'm almost wondering if I want him to bring you home too," Shiki told him, blushing a little as she sat back up in her chair.

Riku couldn't help but smile a little. "But… what would that make me? Your side bitch? Your pet? I just can't imagine a scenario where this would work out for me. What happens when you two get bored with me and want to be alone with each other? Or get married?"

"Pet… I can't help but like the sound of that," Terra chuckled a little, but then quickly realized that it was horribly inappropriate to say. "Er… I was joking. I promise."

"Riku… we wouldn't treat you any differently than we treat each other. We… we've talked about what we would do if this ever happened, and…"

"If what ever happened?" Riku cut her off, looking a bit confused. "If you both fell for the same guy? Did you really think that was gonna happen?"

Shiki sighed, glaring at him, "Shut up and let me talk! I've always wished that we could find someone who would complete our relationship so that we wouldn't have to be with other people… and unless I'm totally off base I think it could be you."

"And what makes you think that? We barely know each other," Riku reminded her.

Terra cut in, "It's a gut feeling we both had the moment we saw you. We're both very committed to following our gut feelings until they're proven wrong. And… it's not often that they match up like this."

"Good God, you two are persistent. If I agree to go out on one real date with you guys… will you stop talking about all of this right now and just let us get to know each other?" Riku offered, wanting all of this gut feeling, soul mate crap to stop.

Shiki looked over at Terra, who nodded back in return. "Sure. We can settle for that. Tomorrow night, back on the Mainlands. We'll go out."

"Ooh, Marly and Larxene are back!" Terra exclaimed, and Riku turned to see a couple—a blonde girl with a …pink-haired man—coming over a sand dune. "Hey guys! Come meet Riku!"

Riku sighed in relief, glad that someone was there to break up the awkward conversation. Tomorrow night was going to be… very, very interesting. But he was actually sort of looking forward to it.

x-x-x-x-x

"Guys… it's our last day on the island and everyone is just sitting around. We should do something!" Sora startled the group at lunch. "I mean… we had so much fun that first night, but everything since then has been kind of blahhh…"

Namine and Yuffie glanced at each other, "Yeah, it hasn't exactly been a fun trip for us," Namine reminded him.

"Seriously… just because you finally banged Kairi doesn't mean we all had as much of a good time," Yuffie added.

"Well damn guys… I was just trying to get everyone's spirits up. And how do you know about that?!" he exclaimed, realizing what she'd said.

Axel raised an eyebrow, "Dude, _everyone_ could hear you. You weren't exactly being sneaky about it."

Kairi just squirmed uncomfortably in her seat beside Sora, "Guys… where's Riku…?"

"Holy shit, he's been gone all day!" Demyx yelped, leaping out of his seat. "Where the hell is he?!"

Roxas chuckled, "Relax guys… he sent me a text a few hours ago. He was feeling upset about Xion so he took the early ferry back to town. He's safe."

"Ooh, Roxas seems happy," Demyx prodded, completely changing gears on them. "Figure things out with Axel?"

The blond's eyes widened and he shot Demyx a glare, "Shut up!"

"Dude, I meant your relationship status. Calm down," Dem eyed him, trying not to laugh. "Are you two together or what?"

Axel smiled over at Roxas, "It's not official… but we're going to try it out for awhile."

"Ooh, yay! I love you two together. The more I see it, the cuter it gets," Demyx squealed happily, oclapping his hands together.

Namine giggled a little, "Not as cute as you and Zexion are! I take it you're official?"

"But of course," Zexion grinned, grabbing Demyx's hand. "I'm just mad it took us this long to figure it out."

"I'm going to fix things with Yuffie one day, you know. I already told her… I won't stop trying until we're together," Namine stated, meeting the small girl's eyes from across the table. "I'm in love with her, and… I only wish I'd seen it before I ruined everything."

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: So… another taste of Dom/sub akuroku! God I love writing that… I seriously can't wait until they actually fuck. **

**Also, yay for Riku development! It's a little weird right now… but it'll get reallllly good soon. Something else I'm super excited for. **

**The next chapter is going to take them back home to the Mainlands and finally start developing Cloud and Leon's relationship! Yay! So excite.**

**Keep reading and please please please keep reviewing! It's so discouraging not to get any feedback… especially when I'm so excited to keep this story going. I want you guys to share in the excite! So how will I know you all still like it if you don't say anything? Even if you're not loving it, let me know what I can do better! **

**Love you guys! **

**-EternalLove15**


	10. Shit Happens

**Chapter Ten**

_Shit Happens_

_A kiss… a touch… a shaky breath… Bodies entwining… tangled together. I love you. I need you. A promise… the end of 'alone.' _

x-x-x-x-x

"Dad! We're home!" Sora shouted, hanging his keys on the hook and pulling Kairi into the house. "I brought Kai over, I hope that's okay!"

When they received no response, Sora furrowed his brow. His car was there… he must be home. Stepping into the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom, he still found no trace of his dad. The last place was his bedroom, but he didn't usually hang out there.

"Dad…?" he knocked on the door as he inched it open quietly, hearing maybe the TV going?

"Shit Sora!" he heard his father swear, opening the door all the way to reveal Cloud scrambling to get under the covers with a large, person sized lump under the blankets next to him. "Uh… I thought you'd be home later!"

Sora eyed him suspiciously, "Dad… is someone else here…?"

"N…no! I've been totally alone all weekend!" Cloud exclaimed, but Sora wasn't buying it.

He grabbed a shoe from the ground by the door and threw it at the lump, which jumped halfway off the bed and yelped loudly, "Ow!"

Sora returned his gaze to his father, tapping his foot on the ground, "Yeah…?"

Suddenly a brunette man poked his head out from under the covers, "Uhm… hello. My name is Leon. Pleasure to meet you."

"Oh good Lord, Leon…" Cloud rolled his eyes, whacking his partner in the gut. "Sora… let me explain."

The teen leaned against the door frame smugly, "Oh no, Dad… I think I've got it. This is Leon, the man that you've been sleeping with since before I was born! I left for the weekend so you decided to rekindle your lost love, eh?"

"Sora, just let me—wait. How did you know all of that?" Cloud looked up at his son, incredibly confused.

"It's funny what you'll learn from your long lost twin and your estranged mother," he smirked, "I'll let you two get dressed so we can chat in the living room. Oh, and Kairi is here. So… this should be interesting."

Closing the door behind him, he headed for the living room where he found Kairi staring at their family photos. "So… I just found my dad in bed with Riku's dad."

"Oh…" she mumbled, not truly understanding him at first. "Wait… what?!"

"Yeah… they're going to come out so we can talk in a few. You can go up to my room if you want, or stay and watch the show…" he chuckled a little. "I'd love to see them try to explain this one."

She furrowed her brow, "I… I'll go upstairs… this is a family discussion."

A few moments later, Cloud and Leon walked into the living room fully dressed and sat down on the couch together. "So… Sora…"

"Are you in love?" he asked them simply, leaning back in the recliner.

"We have been for years," Cloud answered, looking at Leon. "We broke it off when Riku was born… and then a couple weeks later your mother left you with me."

Sora nodded, "Okay… so… what? Did you leave your wife, Leon?"

"No, but… Cloud, I'm going to do it. I'm leaving her. I can't live like this anymore."

Cloud shook his head in disbelief, "Leon… are you sure? I mean… what about Riku?"

"Oh, he'll understand. He sort of had a heads up from me," Sora chimed in, "He might be upset for awhile, but… you're his dad. He'll get over it."

"God, word travels fast with you kids…" Leon mumbled, chuckling softly.

Sora stood up, knowing all he needed to know, "Well… I guess I'll be seeing you around the house then."

As Sora bounded up the stairs to his bedroom, Cloud's mouth gaped a bit, "He… he took that suprisingly well."

"Teenagers… they'll surprise you every time."

x-x-x-x-x

"Are you sure it's okay if I stay over…?" Roxas asked for the millionth time as he looked around Axel's apartment. "I feel like I'm overstepping…"

Axel just laughed, "Dude, you're acting like I have parents that'll kick you out or something. I just wanted some alone time with you off that stupid island. I mean, I'm all for celebrating a birthday but why did we have to stay all weekend?"

"Because I wanted to get to know my long lost brother?"

"Except we barely hung out with him at all," the redhead smirked, "He was too busy pawing at his girlfriend while we were in our bedroom having a power struggle."

Roxas blushed deeply, "I guess so… That did end up being a very strange trip…"

"Damn right it did… but everything should be back to normal at school tomorrow. Demy and Zexy will stare at each other awkwardly across the lunch table, people will give me terrified looks as I walk by, Xion will come back and bitch out Riku until he slinks back into submission and Sora and Kairi won't be able to keep their hands to themselves. The only ones I can't figure out are Nami and Yuffie. I've never seen either of them so upset."

"But I've also never seen two people so perfect for each other," Roxas added, sitting down on the beat up couch awkwardly.

Axel flopped down next to him, laying his head in Roxas' lap and looking up at him, "I have. I think you and me are pretty perfect for each other."

"You're just saying that because I bend to your every will," he laughed, poking the end of Axel's nose.

"Hmm… that, and… every moment I spend with you makes me fall for you a bit harder," his eyes sparkled as he spoke, his words absolutely genuine.

Roxas blushed again, his cheeks deepening to a dark rouge. "Axel…"

"Seriously, Roxas… I just feel like this was meant to be. And I know we aren't officially dating or anything… but I've never been this happy."

Before Roxas could reply with anything, Axel reached up and grabbed him, pulling him down into a kiss. The blond squeaked in surprise, but kissed him back happily.

"Hmm… I'm hungry," Axel chirped, pulling away suddenly, "Wanna order a pizza?"

That startled Roxas a bit, but he nodded, "Sure… I could eat."

"Heh… did my kiss leave you all fuzzy?" Axel asked, hopping back up to his feet and grinning. "Is pepperoni okay?"

Roxas nodded a little, "Yeah… and yes, your kisses always leave me fuzzy."

x-x-x-x-x

"You really didn't have to take me out, Zexion… I mean, it's really nice of you and all but we did just get back…" Demyx stared at the ground, his stomach flipping nervously.

"I'm proud to have you… I guess I just couldn't wait to show it off," he smiled, setting his menu aside. "Besides… I don't really feel like going home yet."

Demyx furrowed his brow, "You've never really talked about your life at home… is it bad?"

"No, not really… it's just me and my mom," he shrugged, "She's… into some bad things, but she tries to keep it out of the apartment."

"Well yeah, she's the same woman that would've let you drown back when we were kids…" Demyx immediately bit his tongue as he said that. "Sorry…"

"Nah, it's fine… She hasn't been the best mom. But… I haven't always been the best son either."

Demyx cocked his head to the side curiously, "But you're like… one of the good kids. You never break the rules."

"That's… not entirely true…" Zexion mumbled as the waiter brought their drinks over.

"What do you mean—"

"Can I take your orders now?" the waiter cut him off, ruining Dem's chance of finding out what he was talking about.

Demyx nodded, "Yeah I'll have the—"

Zexion stared at Demyx for a long moment, "Dem… you okay?"

_I'm fine, why?_

"Sir, are you feeling well?" the waited chimed in, both of them looking at him with concern.

_I just told you, I'm fine. What the hell?_

"Is he speaking another language?"

"Is he possessed?"

"Demyx, what's happening?"

The worlds swirled around in Demyx's brain like a hurricane, his vision flickering black as he struggled to find the source of Zexion's voice.

"I think he's having a seizure," Zexion leapt to his feet, fumbling for his phone in his back pocket and dialing 9-1-1.

_No… Not again… I was in remission…_

Hours might have passed, days even. Demyx had no idea. All he knew was that the lights were blinding and the scent of hospital disinfectant was burning his nose yet again. He'd gotten used to it for so many years, but the tease of remission had destroyed his immunity to it.

"Zexion…" he whispered hoarsley, glad that they hadn't needed to intubate him this time. He hated that shit.

"Demyx!" the excited blunette rushed to his side, "Shit, Demyx… why didn't you tell me?"

He tried to sit up a little, his head pounding hard as he moved, "It's not exactly light dinner conversation…"

"Dem, you've been battling brain cancer since you were a toddler… How did nobody ever find out?"

"Would you want to be the five year old cancer boy? I wore wigs, let my hair grow long to hide the scars… I didn't want people to treat me differently," he tried to explain, eventually just grabbing the remote control for the bed and lifting himself into a sitting position.

Zexion gripped his boyfriend's hand hard, tears springing to his eyes, "Demyx… your parents have been in and out all day… Nobody will tell me anything… they just whisper and stare."

"It's back," Demyx said simply, not seeming surprised, "That's what they always do when it's back. None of them want to talk to me, none of them want to be the one to tell me."

"N…no… no, it can't be back. H…how can it be back?" Zexion stumbled over his words, clutching Demy's hand tighter.

Demyx just snorted, "Dude, watch some fucking House or Grey's Anatomy. I have another brain tumor… that's why I went full exorcist at the dinner table. Happens every time… I swear those things grow like weeds in my fucking head."

"So… so what does this mean?"

"It means… that you have an out, Zex. I'm giving you a chance to walk away right now. If you don't wanna date cancer boy I totally get it. No love lost. This is too much bullshit even for my parents. If either of them could just give up and walk away from me, I don't doubt that they would in a second. So… if you want the out, take it. Otherwise, get ready for things to get really difficult."

Zexion stared at him for a long time, just sniffling a little as a billion thoughts ran through his mind. "Demyx… are you fucking stupid? I _love_ you. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here for you… always. A little cancer isn't going to scare me off."

"All right… just remember that when I'm too weak to walk and my gorgeous mohawk falls out and you have to spoon feed me bland oatmeal because it's the only thing that doesn't make me throw up," he chuckled a little, squeezing Zexion's hand weakly.

"Are you going to tell everyone else?"

Demyx shrugged, "It's probably already all around school… I saw at least three of our classmates at the restaurant. Might as well just roll with it."

"Dem… aren't you scared…?" he asked, wondering how he could be so calm through all of this.

"Zexion… Four years ago they told me I had two months to live. I was totally ready to die, I stopped fearing it and started welcoming it… And then suddenly I was in remission. Suddenly… I wasn't going to die. And now it's starting all over again… when I finally have a reason to live. So yeah… I'm scared. Because if I die now… I'll lose you… And I can't—" he choked up, his voice cracking as he wiped the tears out of his eyes, "I can't lose you, Zexion… I'm going to fight this as hard as I can."

Zexion crawled into his bed next to him and snuggled against his side, "And I'll be there every step of the way, Dem… We'll get you back into remission. I know we will."

x-x-x-x-x

"Fucking… fuck!" Riku yelped as he fell on his ass again. Leave it to the fucking polygamists to think that rollerblading was a fun date.

Suddenly he was being lifted to his feet by two people, one on each side, and he was gliding along rather gracefully between them. "See? It's not totally horrible to have two people there for you."

"Fuck off, Terra," Riku grumbled, but he found it hard not to enjoy the feeling of Terra and Shiki's grips on him.

"Fine, we'll leave your ass here then," Shiki shrugged, skating off with Terra and leaving him on his own.

Two seconds later, he was on his ass again being kicked in the ribs by some shitty kids as they skated by. "I'm fucking done…" he muttered, trying desperately to get onto his feet. Terra came around again on his own, offering a hand that Riku couldn't refuse.

"All right… I'm teaching you how to skate. This is pathetic," he said as he lifted the smaller boy to his feet. "You just need to learn how to find your balance… and don't try to walk on the skates. You want to glide."

Riku had to trust Terra as he stood infront of him and took his hands, helping him balance. "So just… push forward?"

"Right, like one fluid motion. But keep your weight centered, you're trying to lean too hard towards the wall. Forget that it's there. Just… focus on me. Meet my eyes… and just move…"

Riku's breath hitched a little as he looked up into Terra's eyes, locking on them as the two began to move, Riku forward, Terra backwards in front of him. He started with a death grip on his tan arms, then eventually he loosened up to just lightly holding his hands. He almost didn't realize what was going on when Terra suddenly wasn't in front of him anymore. But… he wasn't crashing. He was gliding along the rink by himself, and actually having quite a bit of fun doing it.

Shiki caught them on the way around, smiling, "Ooh, you've got it! Isn't it so fun? It feels like flying…"

"It… it is fun, actually. You guys were actually right."

x-x-x-x-x

"Shiki, you have ice cream all over yourself… I mean, did you even taste any of it?" Riku was laughing… something he didn't think he'd be doing that night.

"I ate most of it! It melted really fast…" she pouted, her face lit by the dim glow of the Christmas lights hung around the patio of the ice cream shop.

Terra chuckled, "You'll get used to her… She's fucking adorable, but she eats like a three year old."

"I kind of can't believe how much fun I've had tonight…" Riku finally admitted, trying to keep up with his own ice cream cone. "I'm sorry I've been kind of a dick about everything, but you can't really blame me for being upset. This isn't exactly normal…"

"So… you'll go out with us again?" Shiki looked hopeful.

He sighed, "You wore me down… Sure, I'd love to. Just… not rollerblading again for awhile. I'm going to have bruises for weeks!"

"I can make you feel better," Shiki offered, a lecherous grin crossing her lips.

Terra elbowed her in the side, "Don't be so fucking creepy, Ki… She means she can give you a really good massage. It always helps me when I'm sore."

"I'll… pass this time. But thanks for offering?"

"So Riku, there's this thing I've been wanting to do since we met," she suddenly switched gears on him entirely, scooting around the picnic bench towards him.

He lifted an eyebrow curiously, "Yeah? What's that?"

In one sweet, sticky movement she had her lips pressed against his in a sugary, yet soft and comforting kiss. He was a bit shocked by it, but eventually found himself kissing her back, nearly dropping his cone on the ground as he resisted the urge to wrap his fingers through her hair.

"Wow…" was all he could muster after that, his heart racing a little.

"Yeah, her kisses tend to give ya cavities," Terra joked, enjoying the look on each of their faces.

Shiki cracked a little smile, looking absolutely pleased with herself. "That was fun…"

"It was… I've never had a kiss like that," Riku found the words escaping his lips before he could stop them. How could he actually be falling for them both? It was absolutely insane. Shiki was so sweet and tantalizing… Xion's kisses had always just tasted bitter and unmeaningful. And then there was Terra… he tasted like… like toasted marshmallows and tobacco and he was rough yet full of this wild passion. The polar opposite of Shiki, yet just as good.

Terra frowned a bit, "Oh? What about mine?" he asked as he pulled Riku into his own breath-taking kiss.

"Not the same… but definitely amazing," Riku muttered, his mind swimming with new thoughts and feelings. He… he was actually happy with these two completely insane, whacked out people. When the hell did that happen?

x-x-x-x-x

"Pregnant… are you fucking kidding me with this shit? How the fuck could you possibly be pregnant? You slept with that guy like two weeks ago!"

"Actually… there was a guy before him… Some college guy…" Yuffie stared down at the little pink plus sign on the pregnancy test with wide eyes.

Namine tried so hard to resist the urge to just smack her upside the head. "All right… so now that we've established that you're a fucking whore… what the hell are you going to do?! I mean, shit… when you called me over here I thought you wanted to finally talk this out! Now… now you're pregnant…"

"Please, Nami… I need you… Especially right now, I just need someone to hold me and tell me that everything is going to be okay…"

"Yuffie, I'm not just some fucking teddy bear for you to hug when shit gets too hard. If you want me right now… I need a commitment from you. I need this to be a relationship. I… I need you to tell me that I'm the only one now…"

Yuffie tossed the test into the trash and scrambled to Namine, who was seated on the edge of the tub, straddling her lap and pulling her into a tight hug, "Nami… I want you… only you… I need you as a friend, as a girlfriend, as my support… I'm done with men, Nami… You're the only one for me, now and forever…"

"If you cross me again, Yuff…" Nami grumbled a little, but her face softened and she smiled a little, "What the fuck are you going to tell your parents? I mean… are you keeping it?"

"Well I'm not fucking getting rid of it!" Yuffie exclaimed, kind of amazed that she'd even ask that. "I guess I'll just… wait until they notice. Who knows? Maybe I won't gain weight."

Namine snorted, "You're a skinny little twig, Yuffie. You're gonna blow up like a damned balloon…"

"Ugh… that's a sexy thought…"

The blonde shrugged, "You know, if you'd have just fucked me instead of a bunch of random guys, you wouldn't be in this position."

Yuffie burst out laughing at that, finding it funny in a sickening sort of way. "You're so fucking right… What the hell did I do? I had a gorgeous, perfect little blonde girl right in front of me this whole time… And I almost fucked up enough to miss out on it entirely."

"I didn't exactly help matters… I should have told you years ago how I felt about you… We could have just bypassed all of this bullshit if we hadn't been such pussies."

"So… you're really going to stay with me? Even through the pregnancy? Even after?" Yuffie looked up at her with wide, sheepish eyes.

Namine just sighed heavily, nodding, "Yeah, dumbass… through everything. You've got me for the long haul."

x-x-x-x-x

**Author's Note: The long awaited 10****th**** chapter cometh! Sorry about the wait, guys… I was in a bad way at work and ended up quitting my job! So hopefully the updates will come much sooner than usual. **

**Anyways… a lot of drama packed into one chapter! Funny how a life changing event can either destroy or strengthen a relationship, eh? **

**Lemme know what you think! **

**Love you all,**

**EtherealLove15**


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